Secrets of the sweep

The San Beda Red Lions have rewritten a long string of records on their way to a stunning and almost predictable 18-0 sweep of the NCAA’s seniors basketball tournament. The first record to topple was the year-old standard for longest single-season winning streak established by San Sebastian College on their way to the championship last season. The Stags won 15 in a row before stumbling to the Letran Knights in the 10-team 2009 season. This year, with a nine-team field, San Beda mowed down its opposition in all 16 elimination-round games.

Another record to tumble was the previous season sweep of 13 games set by San Sebastian in the late 1990’s, when the Stags – carrying a twice-to-beat advantage – also put away the Red Lions in the finals.

Now, San Beda has erected a record that will be very difficult to match, let alone break.

How did the Red Lions set up such a devastating romp?

Recruitment. Until the early 2000’s, San Beda’s best high school players were being recruited by other colleges and universities. They became an inadvertent feeder program for UAAP and even some NCAA powerhouses. Finally, the school and its sponsors said enough was enough, and retained the core of its champion Red Cubs teams. Then they began the trend of having a dominant foreign player in Sam Ekwe, propelling other schools to do the same just to keep up. And while the 6’8” Nigerian was boosting his school to a three-peat, Sudan Daniel was already waiting in the wings.

Balance. The Red Lions have four players averaging in double figures, led by consistent top scorer Garvo Lanete (14.4 ppg). This shows that everyone understand their role on the team, making them even more difficult to stop. Each player in double figures plays a different position: Lanete is a shooting guard, Borgie Hermida (11.4ppg) starts at point, Rome dela Rosa (11.3 ppg) plays the wing and Sudan Daniel (10.9 ppg) comes off the bench at center.

Size does matter. What made the Red Lions so devastating more so on defense, was their sheer size. They would often start with 6’6” Dave Marcelo, 6’5” Kyle Pascual, 6’1” Lanete, 6’1” Dela Rosa and 5’8” Hermida. Coming off the bench, they have the 6’8” Daniel, 6’6” Jake Pascual, and the 6’4” Anthony Semerad and his twin brother David. And when Jess Villahermosa was healthy, they could field a line-up with nobody below six feet tall. Often, head coach Frankie Lim would put a big forward on scoring guards of other teams to take them out of their offense.

Doing it with defense. Sudan Daniel and Dave Marcelo led the NCAA in blocked shots with 4.4 and 1,7, respectively. They trapped, double-teamed and swarmed other teams out of their minds. They were second-best in the league in points allowed, and once held an opponent to only 49 points in one game, winning all their games except one in double figures, including 20-point and 15-point margins in the Finals.

Consistency. Across the board, San Beda ranked number one in almost all statistical categories, whether they be offense or defense. In fact, they were the lowest-ranked team in terms of three-point shot attempts, but had the highest percentage. That kind of dominance is a product of hard work, day in and day out.

Bench power. Sudan Daniel was named league MVP as a reserve, an exceedingly rare occurrence. At one point in Game One of the Finals, San Beda’s bench had outscored San Sebastian’s, 36-9. Daniel and Anthony Semerad combined for 27 of those points, with the Fil-Australian scoring in double figures. In the championship, it was the second unit that built both insurmountable leads when the Stags threatened.

Taking it one game at a time. Even when San Beda was sure of a berth in the Finals, Frankie Lim never talked sweep. In fact, he was concerned that his team was not playing at the higher level he was looking towards. At most, he said that winning Game One would be seventy percent of the job done. The Red Lions had stared disaster in the face last year, getting swept in the Finals by San Sebastian. This year, they made sure there were no more surprises by being prepared for each and every game.

Considering the fact that the Red Lions lose only Borgie Hermida to the pros, they will still be very imposing in the coming seasons. The core of the lineup will be around for a couple more seasons, leaving it to the rest of the league to figure out how to stop them.