UP, La Salle aim for UAAP finals berths

THE University of the Philippines (UP) and the De La Salle Green Archers look to capitalize on their win-once advantage in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball Final Four at the Smart Araneta Coliseum today.

The top seed UP Fighting Maroons face the defending champs Ateneo Blue Eagles at 2 p.m., while the second ranked Green Archers battle the National University (NU) Bulldogs at 4 p.m.

UP finished the elimination round with a 12-2 win-loss card and clinched the top seed in the Final Four for the first time in UAAP men’s basketball history.

While being the top team at the end of the elimination round is already an elite achievement, UP coach Goldwin Monteverde knows that the work is far from over for the Fighting Maroons, who are raring to exact revenge on the Blue Eagles for defeating them in the finals last season.

“Actually, it (being the No. 1 team) is just a result of our hard work. This isn’t planned at all. We’re just taking it one game at a time. It’s not yet done,” said Monteverde, whose Fighting Maroons last took the court on November 19 with a 79-57 win over the Bulldogs.

“We’re not choosing any opponents and we don’t compare. We’re just going to give our best whichever team we face. We’ll just prepare for that and the good thing is everybody [on my team] is healthy heading into this playoffs.”

Meanwhile, the Green Archers last saw action on November 18 when they nipped the Blue Eagles 72-69 to sweep the second round of elims and claim their eighth straight victory.

For La Salle head coach Topex Robinson, the Green Archers, led by MVP frontrunner Kevin Quimbao, being the hottest team in the league practically means nothing right now as they’re always about the next game, preparing for whichever team they’re going to face and taking control of whatever they can.

“We just have to be grateful for whatever it is that is given to us but we also have to remain humble in what we do. There’s a lot of basketball to be played like what Mike (Phillips) said and we can’t celebrate now just like what Kevin Quimbao said, let’s move on to the next play, just like the next game that we’re gonna be up against,” said Robinson.

“This is uncharted territory for us, going into the Final Four so we wanna make sure that we’re gonna be ready. The only way we’re gonna be confident is if we’re gonna be prepared to whoever it is we’re gonna face. We just wanna focus on us and try to make sure that we’re gonna be a united front come Final Four.”

A win by the Maroons and the Archers today will set up a best-of-three Finals duel between the top two teams.

On the other hand, the battle cry for the NU Bulldogs and the Ateneo Blue Eagles today is “live to fight another day.”

The Bulldogs are looking to get out of the funk, having lost their last two elimination round games including their defeat to UP on November 19.

For the Blue Eagles, they look to ride that winning momentum after blasting the Adamson Soaring Falcons 70-48 last Wednesday when they posted the league’s biggest winning margin in a playoff game to secure the last semifinals ticket.

Games Today (Smart Araneta Coliseum): 2 p.m. *UP vs Ateneo, 4 p.m. *La Salle vs NU

*twice-to-beat advantage