Eagles, Tigers match up well in size, speed

It may not be the dream match up everybody was expecting, but coaches of both Ateneo and University of Santo Tomas promised one hell of a war when the Eagles and Tigers clash for the 69th UAAP men’s basketball title beginning tomorrow.

Ateneo mentor Norman Black and UST counterpart Pido Jarencio agreed that the two teams are evenly matched up, both having a roster replete with size and speed.

Combined that with the fact that the Eagles and Tigers are meeting in the Finals for the very first time, make the best-of-three title series at the Araneta Coliseum a truly interesting one.

"It won’t be a walk in the park, definitely," said Black in yesterday’s session of the SCOOP sa Kamayan in Padre Faura, Manila. "I expect a tough, competitive series. UST matched up well with us, size-wise. It may come down to which team wants more, which team is more prepared and which team makes the right plays."

The No. 3 Tigers sealed the titular showdown with the top seeded Eagles after beating fancied University of the East Warriors twice in a row, including a nail-biting 82-81 Finals-clinching win Thursday night.

The Warriors, seeded No. 2 at the end of the eliminations, and Eagles were the top two ranked teams many predicted would meet in the championship during the pre-season.

But Jarencio and his bunch of gritty Tigers had other things in their mind. "Before the start of the season nobody took us seriously, we’re not even ranked (as a contender) but we have overachieved. We thought we would just improve on our finish last year but now we’re in the finals," said Jarencio in Filipino.

The Eagles made it to the best-of-three series a week earlier after eliminating No. 4 team Adamson Falcons, 76-73.

Black said hopefully the one-week rest won’t have a bad effect on his team.

"That was the challenge I gave to my players. The past few days, I tried to balance our practice so that we’ll have our legs back in time for Sunday," said the American coach, hoping to give the Loyola-based school its first UAAP championship since 2002.

Ateneo and UST split their head-to-head match up in the eliminations.

"I’ve seen how his (Pido) team improved during the course of the season and they’re definitely on a roll right now. But we’ve beaten them before and we just want to win this championship badly," added Black in the ACCEL sponsored session.