Hooked on the hoop

The UAAP marks the start of people’s curiosity and mad frenzy over collegiate sports, specifically basketball. Even if I consider us a nation of undersized basketball players, still this is one time I set aside my indifference towards the game, and become interested in it like everyone else, for it’s not just basketball we’re talking here but school pride. School pride, for us, is the nearest sensation we get to what the Greeks felt when they won the bidding for Euro 2004.

Though I thought I had long outgrown this stage since college is way behind me now, still the curiosity overwhelms me; I find it hard to get it out of my system. It’s really the alumni who turned out to be more hooked on it than the students themselves. And if you college freshmen out there still can’t understand what the fuss is all about, in due time you will.

College sports, they say, promote camaraderie and friendly competition. In layman’s terms this simply means: "It’s high time we beat the living daylights out of the rival school," and in many instances, both figuratively and literally.

Having followed and covered the games for eight years now, I’ve learned and seen a lot of things, both gruesome and not-so-gruesome. You feel excitement every time the opening games start. Even friends who are known to be apathetic towards anything that has to do with their school, suddenly catch the school spirit.

The familiar cheering beat of drums follows the rhythm of your heartbeat. In a match between rival schools it is considered the "drums of war." The excitement and adrenalin rush are just unexplainable, the crowd suddenly turns into two "feuding tribes," then the first buzzer sounds. The war begins.

If take a closer look, the games are only one of the two key elements that spice up college basketball. The other half (or, should I say the larger half) is the heat of rivalry between your school and the other school.

Over dinner one night in the condo of Tito Louie Cruz, I got to chat with one of my mom’s friends, a La Sallian all his life. While the larger table was too busy talking about politics, Larrie Leviste recalled to me those years of college basketball and the rivalries in it. He actually gave insights that us younger ones have yet to comprehend. He said that it was only last year that he watched his first La Salle-Ateneo game ever – and he said it would be his last since the thrill was too much for him. This was during the run-up to the finals, when the winner would face FEU in the championship. He even had a ringside view on the brawl that happened after.

The heat that is this college basketball could burn up into a passion that transcends generations. This school rivalry is like the feud between the Montagues and Capulets in Romeo & Juliet. "The two will never meet," as Shakespeare says.

College basketball can release you of your inhibitions, a place where you can get the heat out with no one to stop you, especially when the games get intense. Larrie said he got shocked at what he saw, people from elite schools being so rabid. Name-calling was routine, with the words getting more "colorful" depending on the player’s looks. But it is also in college basketball where even an aesthetically challenged player can become a heartthrob overnight just because he moves well on the hardcourt. But when the games (or the "rock concert" as they call it) end, these juvenile warriors switch back to their "peace-loving" selves.

Often people get carried away and take the rivalries to another level. These ball games can be a battleground of "bragging rights." Perhaps oddly, you get to enjoy doing the school bashings – it’s part of being an angst-filled youth. La Sallites and Ateneans take it so personally, whether they win or lose; it’s like the end of the world, or world domination, if they’re the loser or winner. Where was I in all of this? Just the listening ear who can’t help but laugh at it all – mud slings that I dare not publish. From my mom’s colleagues to my friends, these are generations apart but have one common goal of trying to get at each other.

Yet this animosity is what spices up college basketball, this sense of danger in the heat of battle.

But there are worse scenarios than these. In the NCAA where my alma mater belongs to, the rivalries can get a whole lot funkier, a lot more primitive. This is where you watch your back, quite literally, or you could get hurt.

Back in freshman year, when I was about to watch my very first opening games, my dad prevented me from wearing any trace of my school color lest I got into trouble, since other schools could really be violent. He even taught me precautionary measures, listing the school crowd to avoid, trying not to grab any attention and not to move in groups – it’s just like going to battle. It may seem paranoia to you, but I’ve heard stories of people getting beaten up just by being in the games. Just a few years ago, during a championship match between two "hooligan" schools, at the end of the game the cameraman caught in his film guys from two sides ganging up on each other. And where does my school stand in all of this? Being the fun-loving and sometimes the "smart ass" crowd we can be, we’re quite known in the league as the school that can come up with the humorous jeers, but it just stops there. And at times, the other side takes it too personally, getting annoyed at the end. In this league you’ll hear the two sides really berating and insulting each other. And most of the time, "we’re financially well off than you" is the name of the game – and the other side just shuts up. A pep squad from an elitist school got suspended years back, when one cheerleader showed off her cell phone (it was part of their performance) in front of the crowd of the opposing school.

While you want all this fun to go on forever, some of us think that it is time to move on, my alma mater being the only remaining founder of NCAA. There’s a rising Bedan interest for us to transfer to the UAAP. Since San Beda is a leading producer of UAAP star players and has a colorful and rich basketball history, it would definitely give the league more excitement. Though our university status is still in the works, it would still be a very long road ahead of us, but it’s not really impossible. The mere fact that this year’s UAAP commissioner is San Beda’s pride and creator of star players, coach Ato Badolato, is already a good omen for us.

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E-mail the author at ketsupluis@hotmail.com.