Can Lyceum pull a Leicester this NCAA
Season 93?
by rick olivares
The Lyceum Pirates’ CH Perez
threw up a three-pointer that bricked. College of Saint Benilde’s Matt Johnson
plucked down the rebound and pitched it forward igniting a Blazers fastbreak.
Johnson drifted to the right
while teammate Clement Leutcheu cut right through the middle. LPU’s Jayvee
Marcelino closed down Johnson.
The Blazers guard knew that his
LPU counterpart would try to stop him from driving in so he rifled a pass to
Leutcheu. It should have been an easy two; maybe even a dunk. However,
Marcelino knew that he’d get some help. Perez scooted in and stole the ball
before Leutcheu could get his hands on it.
Because of his speed, Perez was
going out of bounds. In one motion as he stole the ball, he passed it to
Marcelino who took one dribble, looked up court then pitched it forward to twin
brother Jaycee for an easy two; 35-21 for LPU.
The play encapsulates the
lightning quick game of the Lyceum Pirates who at this time of writing are
undefeated in NCAA Season 93 at 11-0 after they ransacked CSB, 83-69.
The Pirates have made noises in
the past two seasons since the time Topex Robinson came on board as head coach.
They’ve seen their African (Victor Nguidjol and Mike Nzeusseu) and local
players generate a lot of excitement. But when Perez, who moved from Ateneo to
LPU a year ago, and the Marcelino brothers suited up, the Pirates have shifted
to a higher gear.
In the pre-season, they made a
lot of noise. They lost to San Beda which was unfazed by all the hype about the
Pirates as they crushed them, 96-79. The question of LPU’s NCAA title
aspirations was – how much did they learn and what could they correct from that
loss?
Apparently, they did as they went
on to hand San Beda its only loss (95-91) of this NCAA Season. With Letran
stirring to life, San Sebastian fulfilling the promise of a solid pre-season,
and San Beda… well, still San Beda… could Lyceum be the NCAA version of the
English Premier League’s Leicester City – a team coming out of nowhere to steal
the crown? Leicester is a football club that after years of moving up and down
the top tiers of English football snatched the coveted title two seasons ago.
There is a long way to go, of
course, but right now, let’s enjoy the damage that the Pirates have been
inflicting on the league.
Robinson’s boys are the
top-ranked offensive team averaging 90.1 points per game. That is a huge jump
from last year’s 70.6! And San Beda’s ratchada squad of last season managed
87.0 points per game.
Furthermore, the Pirates lead in
several major offensive statistical categories – field goal shooting (43%),
points in the paint (43.6), rebounds (48.1), assists (17.5), fastbreak points
(15.3), second chance points (11.7), and bench points (45.1).
Individually, Perez is leading
the statistical race over nearest competitors Kent Michael Salado of Arellano
University and Rey Nambatac of Letran.
Although Robinson has gone to a
10-man rotation (with the others seeing occasional playing time) he has a deep
and talented team. He has three regular double digit scorers in Perez,
Nzeusseu, and Jaycee Marcelino.
Defensively… here’s the chink in
their armor – LPU is in the middle of the pack in almost every category. That
leads us to infer that they have yet to run into a really defensive-oriented
squad. You can make a case for San Beda in that category as they are the
top-ranked defensive team. More than that, the Red Lions have the experience,
the depth and talent to defend their crown and battle the Pirates man-for-man.
While Robinson would protest that
it is too early to talk about championships, if they can keep this streak going
and win it all, they could be the first expansion team since the NCAA went to
11 schools years ago (they are now down to 10 after Angeles University
Foundation bowed out) to achieve the feat.
And this is good for the league
unless you’re from Mendiola where no doubt, you’re the only one enjoying this
bit of dominance.
October 19 cannot come soon
enough when Lyceum and San Beda collide for their second round match.
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