Ateneo vs FEU: Higher Ground

Higher Ground*

Ateneo 82 vs. Far Eastern University 74

by rick olivares with pics by brosi

When I watch Ateneo play Far Eastern University, I think of the days when the Chicago Bulls used to go up against the Detroit Pistons. I am not saying that the Tamaraws play dirty like those Bad Boys of old although one can occasionally liken Mark Bringas to Rick Mahorn.

Think about it, back in the early days of the program, the twice-to-beat advantage didn’t help us one bit. When we faced them in the finals in 2003, we got outclassed.

Those Bulls teams of old had God in sneakers (Michael Jordan) and no matter how enthralling Come Fly With Me was, the one clip they did not show was the Bulls being sent home for the summer time and again. When the Bulls did get over the hump, they swept the Pistons in four and the Bad Boys in a moment of utter no-classnesses (I just have to invent a word for such crassness), walked off the floor without so much as saying, “Congrats. You got us this time. Good luck in the Finals.”

In the last few years, the one team that oft dealt Ateneo a loss were the Tams. Some called them the best team in the league but somehow, they were defeated by La Salle in Season 71 and UE in Season 72 before the match up that all were waiting for coalesced in the Finals of Season 73. We all know what happened next -- that Ryan Buenafe channeled Babe Ruth by calling the series – that they’d sweep the Tamaraws and he’d be the MVP. In a moment that LeBron James termed a “now or never”, the critics – God bless them because what do they know – were silenced and the three-peat was accomplished.

And so on to the pre-season where the Blue Eagles at 6-2, and the Tamaraws at 9-0, squared off in the semifinals match up of the Filoil Flying V Pre-season Tournament.

How long has this team been going up against an FEU team that had Aldrech Ramos and JR Cawaling? Since 2007. The only holdovers from that Blue Eagle team are Kirk Long and Emman Monfort. They must be sick and tired of each other by now. So sick that the normally jovial Bert Flores got sent to the showers early because of consecutive technical fouls for incessant complaining.

Is there bad blood between the two teams? They’ve had heated clashes in the juniors and seniors football tournaments in the last several years that spilled into board meetings (remember the aborted best-of-three finals because of the disputed goal difference rule). In the basketball tournament, there have been snide comments in post-game matches and well, you can spin it any way you want but the fact of the matter is the real rivals in recent years (outside of streak against Adamson) have been Ateneo and FEU.

Now if the 10-4 finish in last year’s UAAP elimination round didn’t teach you a thing, never bet against the champs when the second season is around.

Fortunately for Ateneo fans (unfortunately if you root for FEU), Pippo Noundo, the recipient of a perfect bounce pass by Ramos who found him unguarded in the lane, had a Denok Miranda moment (Reil Cervantes knows this all too well) when he missed a point blank stab with only 2:26 left in the game clock with a chance to bring the Blue Eagles’ lead down to a bucket at 76-72.

After being spotted a 13-point deficit after two Oping Sumalinog (who broke the Tams’ hearts in the Finals of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League of 2009) free throws, 67-54, FEU roared back and dropped an 18-9 bomb and were back in business.

A sideline photographer wondered if Flores’ getting tossed in the middle of the third quarter had lit a fire under his team. The answer is no because Ateneo spotted them a 16-point lead at that point before it shrank to 63-52 by period’s end.

Back to the Noundou miss that was the Undou-ing of FEU. Nico Salva got fouled by Ramos on the opposite end and the former Smart Gilas forward-center shook his head in equal parts disbelief and dismay. How many times can one be snake bit? Somehow, Leo Austria and a couple of generation of Adamson fans can empathize.

Salva made the two free throws and it was 78-72 with 2:18 to play.

That’s when Norman Black dialed – I have to say I cringe when I use this crappy sports journalism term – the Mutt and Jeff combination (happy now?) of Kiefer Ravena and Greg Slaughter.

Ravena who is adjusting to the more physical college play, had his competitive fires stroked after getting decked by Bringas. And in a moment that brought to mind when former Seattle Supersonics enforcer Xavier McDaniel decked Chicago Bulls power forward Horace Grant where Jordan told his teammate not to show that he was hurt, Ravena, clutching his nose, hit two of four free throws, drove the lane for a lay-up over Noundou and deposited a high shot off the glass over Terrence Romeo to start the fourth.

Any Bulls fans remember when the Los Angeles Clippers coach pulled out Derrick Martin for trash talking Jordan? And MJ proceeded to destroy the fresh Clippers rookie and the entire LA team in the next minutes?

With 1:43 left, Ravena drove the lane once more, hung in the air for a second before firing a bullet to Slaughter who flashed into the lane. The tallest Blue Eagle center ever, hit a hook shot for an 80-74 Ateneo lead and in the next play, tipped in Salva’s baseline miss for the match’s final points. 

In case you haven’t been keeping tabs, this is the first time that Ateneo has gotten out of the quarterfinals of this summer tournament. They dealt the only remaining undefeated team a not-so-shocking exit and now they were in the finals.

Improbable? Maybe.

But if there’s anything that I learned after watching those Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, they not only won but they won big and even devoured everything in sight from post-season awards to even the Hamburger Championship of the world (aka the McDonald’s Championship when the beat Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece 104-78 on October 18, 1997).**

Since 2007, Norman Black’s teams have won three UAAP titles, three PCCL titles, three University Games crowns, one Nike Summer League championship, and one Fr. Martin’s Cup. A Filoil trophy would look nice on that gilded mantelpiece (now I am wondering if the comparison should be more of like FC Barcelona that has pretty much won everything available in club football in the past three years).

But standing in their way… is another old foe, the San Beda Red Lions.

* Higher Ground was the title of the first ever NBA-produced documentary on the Chicago Bulls and that was during 1987-88 when Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were rookies.

** The Bulls played minus Scottie Pippen and were led by Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman while Toni Kukoc was a flop in his return to Europe. Aside from MJ, the only ones in double figure scoring were -- Randy Brown and Steve Kerr!


I'm going to ask Rajko Toroman next time what he thought of his former players -- Slaughter, Ramos, and Cawaling while watching them play yesterday at the San Juan Arena.