Ateneo and Santo Tomas, last year’s finalists, will try to knock each other out today in the 70th UAAP season.
At 3 p.m., before an expected banner crowd at the Araneta Coliseum, the Blue Eagles and the Tigers square off with the winner moving on and the loser going home.
The right to face twice-to-beat La Salle for the second finals slot is at stake in the game between the two teams that figured in the 2006 finals won by never-say-die UST.
The Tigers dropped the opening game of the best-of-three behind the last-second shot by Ateneo’s Doug Kramer. But they never gave up, winning the next two games and the crown.
Coach Pido Jarencio is once again counting on that same, old spirit.
“I’ve trained these players to become tough. That’s how I was trained. We don’t care whom we face in each game because we know among ourselves that we’re ready,” he said.
After his Tigers knocked out the FEU Tamaraws last week, the former UAAP and PBA star warned all the teams still in the title hunt, including UE, of their will to keep the title.
“Let’s see how tough they are because we are tough,” he said.
University of the East scored an incredible 14-game sweep of the elimination round and has been seeded to the best-of-three final, which begins either on Sept. 30 or Oct. 4.
Ateneo and UST split their two matches in the elimination round, the Tigers winning the first one, 87-74, and the Blue Eagles taking the second by the slimmest of margins, 72-71.
American Kirk Long, one of two foreign players of Ateneo, hit a buzzer-beater in that Ateneo squeaker, and won’t hesitate to take similar shots if needed.
While the heads-on showdown between the two teams are even, the question that will ring in the Ateneo stands is whether the Blue Eagles can recover from two painful losses days ago.
First, they blew a golden opportunity to grab the No. 2 spot and the twice-to-beat advantage by losing to an ousted National University, 88-96.
Then just a few days later, they lost to the Green Archers, again by a hairline, leaving them with the difficult task of winning three straight games to reach the finals.
“There’s no sense dwelling in the past. As a player, as a coach, you get upset by losing. But as long as there’s a chance, that’s what’s important,” said coach Norman Black.
That chance comes today against the defending champions.
“That’s the motivation, to beat UST and get a shot at La Salle again,” said Black.