Column: ALL WRITE

AL S. MENDOZA

EMERGING ARE

DYNASTIES IN
COLLEGE CAGING 

SEEMINGLY, two dynasties are shaping up in college basketball—Ateneo at the UAAP and San Beda at the NCAA.

I would even go further as to say the foundations of that thesis had been firmly established.

Ateneo had already barged into Final 4 confrontations 13 straight times from 1999 since a revitalized basketball development program was launched in 1998.

After finally ending its title drought with a UAAP crown in 2002, Ateneo went into a winning rampage by scoring four straight title victories from 2008-2011.

Only four teams had achieved that feat thus far—University of the East, De La Salle and University of Sto. Tomas.

The secret to Ateneo’s success, of course, can be attributed to two things: 1) A basketball program that says, “Student first, athlete second;” and, 2) Norman Black.

To the Ateneo officials’ happy surprise, their basketball players became better players when they were required to hit passing grades first before they could even start thinking of winning slots in the team.

“It wasn’t easy at first, but as we went along with the new approach of developing players, our student-players started to appreciate its merits,” said Arben Santos, one of the chief architects of the Ateneo program.

It helped that Ateneo snared Norman Black, who was prevailed upon to stay after his Blue Eagles blew a 1-0 lead to lose the 2006 title to Far Eastern University, 1-2.

Today, there are moves to lure Black back to the Philippine Basketball Association, where he scored the third Grand Slam feat when he steered San Miguel Beer to a triple crown triumph in 1989.

Happily for the Eagles, Black is sticking it out with Ateneo, which is ominous since Black has loads of championship material that are widely considered good for at least two more titles—in succession at that, mind you.

Now to San Beda.

Like Ateneo, San Beda has won four NCAA titles in the last five years, tying the 16 record crowns won by Letran.

Like Ateneo, San Beda has a great coach, too, in Frankie Lim, who won all four NCAA titles in five years of coaching the Lions.

Indeed, these are interesting times in college basketball.