UAAP 3x3 2019

Last March 2 I made the trek to the Ayala Malls Feliz to check out the 2019 UAAP 3x3 Tournament. Early publicity articles had promised a glimpse of next season's Fighting Maroons superstar nucleus - Ricci Rivero, Kobe Paras, and holdover Juan De Llano - playing as a unit publicly for the first time; but at the 11th hour Paras pulled out, with no reason given. So the team that showed up was composed of both De Llano brothers, Rivero, and Will Gozum. It was still a team that featured 2/3 of the high profile triumvirate, and offered plenty to get excited about. Most of all I wanted to get a feel, however small, of how cohesive they are, and how good they can eventually be.

Now of course, 3x3 is totally different from the full-court game, and success in one will not necessarily mean success in the other. Still, I wanted to see how well they moved without the ball and played off of each other.

While most of my fellow UP alumni have assumed that the Fighting Maroons will automatically do even better this coming season after their Cinderella run in Season 81, I have my concerns.

First of all, it's a team that has just graduated eight seniors in all - including vital cogs Diego Dario, Paul Desiderio, and Gelo Vito. In the college game, you can never underestimate the value of seniors, because they provide much needed poise and stability. One only need look back at the tapes of the Season 81 Final Four, and the contributions of Jerson Prado, to realize the value of maturity and experience in the college game. Thankfully, Jun Manzo is still playing, and I think for UP to be successful, he has to be able to lead from the point guard spot, dictating the tempo and keeping everyone in line.

This is especially more true given that UP will be a bit thin at the point guard spot - the single most important leadership position in basketball. After Manzo, while it is true that Juan De Llano can also run the point, one should note that when he's running the point, he's not looking for his own shot (or at least not ideally). So while this is an opportunity to show how multi-faceted he can be, it's also true that any basketball player can only focus on one thing at a time, i.e. he's not scoring when he's assisting and vice versa. It will be up to him to show he can balance the different responsibilities that will surely be expected of him.

In short, while it may be tempting to assume that with the most talent it has had in perhaps 33 years, UP will automatically do even better than it did last season, what I've been trying to say is that projecting productivity is not as simple as adding up all the stats. It'll be an interesting upcoming season - and Ateneo is still very much Ateneo. Like the rest of the UP community, I am hopefully optimistic and look forward to a season that showcases the best things about athletic competition.