The Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles, the Five-Peat Champions at that, are on the brink of breaking down in the UAAP Season 76 Men’s Basketball.
After a wake up call loss in their opener against the NU Bulldogs, Ateneo dropped the succeeding two games against two of their biggest rivals, the FEU Tamaraws, and worse, the DLSU Green Archers.
There’s no Finals MVP Nico Salva to help them, there’s no former MVP and Rookie of the Year Kiefer Ravena to aid them, and there’s no big-guy Greg Slaughter to cover them .Add to that that there’s no Coach Norman Black to get them organized again. It looks to be that Ateneo’s time of dominance is on the verge of a bitter end.
To illustrate how bad the situation is at the moment, Ateneo is level headed with the punching bags of the UAAP, the UP Fighting Maroons at 0-3.
A Ryan Buenafe and Chris Newsome tandem is not going to be enough for the defending champions. They need more than these two or they will bleed dry. Juami needs to step up, Kiefer needs to be back on the court and senior player Frank Golla should stop being a huge waste of empty space on the floor.
I figured that Ateneo won’t get close to a sweep in the elimination but I didn’t expect it to happen in this way. They’re dangerously close of not making it to the final four if they keep dropping games they’re supposed to win.
In other news, the FEU Tamaraws are off with a brilliant 3-0 start into the UAAP Season 76 setting aside La Salle in the opener, beating Ateneo in their second game and smashing UP in their third outing.
The way things look at the moment, these are my final four bets:
FEU
UST
NU
DLSU
What can you say about the UAAP Season 76 this far?
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