THE tournament is young but already, three schools are showing signs of dominance in Season 88 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball championship.
Surprisingly, Ateneo is on top with an unbeaten 3-0 win-loss slate going into the fourth day of first round eliminations.
I can only think of Kymani Ladi as the significant power behind Ateneo’s resurgence.
At 6-foot-7, Ladi can shoot threes with the ease of a gazelle about to soar. The 23-year-old is from Vallejo, California, whose Filipino father is of Puerto Rican descent.
‘He is also a smart defender,’ Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin said of Ladi in a recent interview with Spin.ph columnist Homer D. Sayson. ‘He plays offensively, with perimeter skills. He is a smart defender.’
But while Ladi may emerge as Ateneo’s savior and prove to be the key to the Blue Eagles’ redemption mission, I have to concede that University of Santo Tomas is also armed this time with a reinforcement looking every bit as a complete package.
I refer to Collins Arkowe, the massively built Nigerian, whose 6-foot-10 frame is packed with 260 pounds of pulverizing power.
In just two games, Arkowe is already producing statement stats that could yet translate into serious title hopes for the Growling Tigers from España.
First, he debuted with 29 points and 17 rebounds in University of Santo Tomas’s (UST) ghastly 87-67 rout of defending champion University of the Philippines, playing practically unstoppable in the shaded lane and transforming the boards into his own private domain.
And then in his second game, he fired 20 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, sparking a rally that erased a 12-point deficit en route to UST’s 93-84 spanking of De La Salle.
At the rate he’s been playing, Arkowe might yet shoulder the Tigers into greater heights-if not into the championship-given that he’s got great back-up in both Nic Cabanero and Forthsky Padrigao.
In both wins of UST, Cabanero and Padrigao dished off their usual deadly sting-with Cabanero continuously carving baskets even on tight situations and Padrigao also firing triples and unleashing his trademark assists in abundance.
I won’t be surprised if, this early, UST coach Pido Jarencio is dreaming to finally end a title drought of 19 years-and duplicating his 2006 victory as a rookie coach.
Jarencio faces another acid test today when UST battles National University (2-0) in a battle of unbeaten teams at 4:30 p.m. at UST’s Quadricentennial Pavillion on España.
It could be an emotional game for Arkowe as he squares off for the first time with the school where he first honed his skills as a junior player at NU.
The game is preceded by the match between La Salle (1-1) and winless Far Eastern U (0-2) at 2 p.m.
THAT’S IT Also unfolding today is the duel between Luzon/ICTSI and VisMin junior teams at the windswept but beautiful The Country Club in Santa Rosa, Laguna. The boys and girls golf skirmishes in the Ryder Cup-style competition is in 7-10, 11-14 and 15-18 age groups. Good luck to Francis Talion, who is Luzon team captain where his daughter, Levonne, is a mainstay in Luzon’s 15-18 division.