Blue Eagles celebrate 9th UAAP Title

Your Bonfire hosts (L-R) Laura Lehman, Bettina Jose, Jhofer Eleria, yours truly, PJ Lanot and Martie Bautista. This year's Bonfire's theme #Blue Eagles Band of Brothers One Big Fight!

Presenting your 2017 - 2018 UAAP Men's Basketball Champions - 

The Ateneo Blue Eagles.

First to be interviewed from the players are the graduating Blue Eagles including Team Captain Vince Tolentino, Kris Porter and Chibueze Ikeh.

The crowd and myself egging on Center Kris Porter to give it one more year.

Chibueze Ikeh is very happy that his patience and sacrifice resulted in a title. I told the crowd that since he is one of our best shot blockers we can now call him "Chibog-Easy Ikeh!"

UAAP Season 80 Finals MVP Thirdy Ravena said that his love for the Ateneo made him overcome all the adversities he faced. As I said Agent Zero is definitely a true blue Ateneo hero!

"Matt, is it true na nagkatampuhan kayo ni Mike?" "Nakalimutan mo raw kelan ang Birthday niya?" "Whenever you are with the ball, we have no doubt that you will come out with the best decision for the team" From now on we can call you Walang Duda-Matt!"

"Next year always give Tyler a pass so that it will be called Assist-Tio!" 

" When you cover an opponent its as if you are double teaming the person! That's why you should be called Mamu Dinobli!"

Had a blast interviewing former NBA Center Alton Lister who is now one of the Assistant Coaches of the team and is working on the big men.

Kudos to the second team of the Blue Eagles and the future stars of the team. 

A message of thanks from Assistant Coach Sandy Arespacochaga whose supporting cast has been developing Blue Eagles for more than a decade.

Another successful hosting of the Ateneo Bonfire. See you next year.

Ateneo UAAP Season 80 1st Semester Champions

The Ateneo Blue Eagles are once again kings of the UAAP! After seeing the BLue Eagles capture their ninth title in the UAAP, the loyal followers of the Hail Mary squad began preparing for another epic celebration the Ateneo way - the Bonfire. This is the first time in the history of the Ateneo that two bonfires are celebrated in a year - the first one of course was last May.

Joining me this time are four Alumni and Martie Bautista who is the current courtside reporter of the Ateneo Blue Eagles. From left that's Jhofer Eleria, PJ LAnot, Bettina Jose and Ateneo's former courtside reporter and now Ms. World-Philippines Laura Lehman.

Fr. Kit Bautista, the Ateneo school Chaplain, started off with a prayer. Fr. Kit asked the Ateneo community to pray for the Blue Eagles at the Alumni homecoming the night before Game 3. He then led the prayer of thanks.

Ateneo University President, Fr. Jet Villarin with another inspirational message to everyone.

The first student-athlete to be feted was Bianca Carlos of the Ateneo Women's Badminton team. Although her team fell short this year, her five years of being undefeated in the Single's division is an accomplishment that gained her so much popularity.

One of the teams that improved by leaps and bounds were the Ateneo Women's Taekwondo team that brought home the silver.

The Ateneo Men's Judo team are back on top but this time they were declared co-Champions with the University of Santo Tomas University.

Being consistent is in the DNA of the Ateneo Women's Swimming team as they are the champions once again in their field.

Not to be outdone are the Ateneo FAST Men's Swimming team that captured the title for the fourth consecutive year. Another four-peat by the Swim Team.

Ateneo Blue Eagles win 9th UAAP Title

DEJAVU. Jett Nieto sparked the Ateneo Blue Eagles as he sank a three pointer with 10 minutes left  to lead to the Hail Mary squad to its first ever UAAP title. Thirty years later his son Matt did the same. Alex Araneta lived through his UAAP career by being maligned as an ineffective center. But in the 1987 finals he came out with a gem of a game to outshine National team center Jerry Codinera to team with Nieto for the win. Chibueze Ikeh got his cue from Alex. 

Wesley Gonzales, coming back from a one year hiatus, erupted in the 2002 UAAP Basketball finals to fuel the Blue Eagle’s drive to end Ateneo’s title-less drought as the Finals MVP proved to be the big difference in Game 3 of the finals. Fifteen years later Thirdy Ravena would do the same.  Ryan Buenafe scored the dagger three that gave the Ateneo Blue Eagles their sixth UAAP title in season 73, and so did Isaac Go.

The Blue Eagles have always known the recipe for success and finally after four unfruitful campaigns Ateneo has put together a Band of brothers that defied the odds to bring back the UAAP Mens’ Basketball title back to Katipunan.  The Ateneo de Manila University got back at De La Salle University as the Blue Eagles wore down the Green Archers 88 – 86 in game 3 of the Finals of the 80^th Season to win their ninth UAAP title. The Blue Eagles have won the Men’s Basketball title at the expense of the Green Archers with a total of three times wherein the Men in Green are the defending Champions! At the same time, the Blue Eagles have beaten their arch-rivals twice in Game 3 finals, first in 2002 and this year. 

Ateneo has always won every time when a big scoring center was in the fold, Danny Francisco in 1987 and 1988, Enrico Villanueva in 2002, Rabah Al-Husaini in 2008 and 2009 while Greg Slaughter was at the helm in 2011 and 2012.  This year,  the duo of the highly physical Chibueze Ikeh and the clutch hitting Isaac Go did the trick as the two combined to score 19 points while Ikeh hauled down 13 rebounds, a steal and two blocks to offset the tournament MVP Ben Mbala’s output.  What was more evident was that the two always combined to give what Coach Tab needed. When he needed inside presence and defense Ikeh would deliver, while Go most often took the most important shots of the game.

Coming out big were two names that carried the team throughout the season – Thirdy Ravena and Matt Nieto. But if you were to ask them on how they excelled, they will be quick to point out that they became better because of their team mates. Buying in to Coach Tab Baldwin’s team concept has enabled the Eagles to snatch the crown from the most intimidating MVP the UAAP has ever produced. There was the frontline of Chibueze Ikeh and Vince Tolentino who labored hard to give the scorers opportunities to score and secure the needed rebounds.

Then there were Anton Assistio, Jolo Mendoza and Mike Nieto who all lit up the gym with timely three pointers and  2 point conversions whenever the ball rotates their way. There’s Raffy Verano, Gian Mamuyac, Tyler Tio and Aaron Black who leads the second unit with their defense that they translate to the needed points that gives the Blue Eagles either the lead or the needed baskets to get back to the game. Then there’s Isaac Go who sank almost all the clutch baskets of the Blue Eagles that made everyone say that he’s Ateneo’s Go-to Guy!

“There is nothing better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. “The last six games of the Blue Eagles tested their character in the face of adversity. The Blue Eagles faced adversity as though it was on their dinner plate every night. But it would not have been possible without each other’s help. When everything was on the line, the Blue Eagles responded with utmost urgency, determination, discipline and more importantly responded as a team. These are the qualities that showed the maturity of the Blue Eagles, these are the qualities that became their character.  The three point shots against FEU by Isaac and Matt, the monster offensive rebound of Thirdy that became an assist to Matt Nieto, the offensive rebound of Chib Ikeh that eventually became an Assistio three, the lock-down defense of Gian Mamuyac and all the other small things that made the Blue Eagles big.

DEJAVU. Yes there were sightings of many individual greatness that the Blue Eagles emulated from previous champion teams, but the only thing new was the way the Blue Eagles played as a team. Everyone made his own contribution, everyone chipped in, everyone had his share of greatness. This team is the weakest Ateneo champion team on paper, but the strongest when these band of brothers come together to face adversity.  Congratulations to the  Blue Eagles once again for you showed that basketball is definitely a team game and that old saying that Together Everyone Achieves More! One Big Fight!

Thanks to the Ateneo Sports Shooters for their pictures:
ARVIN LIM and LEO LOPEZ

25 Things to do in Korea

Honestly there are a hundred and one things and more to do in South Korea. There are more that I have not included just because I had no more time to do it. Most probably, in my next visit I may be able to add another twenty five or more things to do. But in the meantime, here are just some tips that might help you when you visit South Korea.

  1. EXPLORE INCHEON AIRPORT

   2. EAT AT THE INCHEON AIRPORT

  3. RENT A WIFI DEVICE

4. VISIT HISTORICAL SITES: GO to the  GyeongbukgongPalace

5.TAKE A PICTURE WITH FOREIGNERS

6.  WITNESS THE CHANGING OF THE GUARDS AT THE GyeongbukgongPalace

7. WEAR A HANBOK

8. VISIT THE NAMSAN TOWER & ENJOY THE VIEW

9. BE A ROMANTIC - BUY A LOCK

10. RIDE THE NAMSAN CABLE CAR

11. GO TO NAMI ISLAND

12. VISIT THE CATHEDRAL

13. LEARN HOW TO MAKE A KIMCHI

14. COLLECT LEAVES

15. TRY THEIR TRANSPORTATION - RIDE A BUS

16. TRY THEIR TRANSPORTATION - RIDE A TAXI

17. TRY THEIR TRANSPORTATION - RIDE THE TRAIN

18. GO AROUND - BUY COSMETICS IN MYEONGDONG

19. TRY KOREAN FOOD - EAT AT MYEONGDONG KYOJA

20. TRY KOREAN FOOD - EAT AT AT YOGANE

21. TRY KOREAN FOOD - TRY KOREAN STREET FOOD


22. TRY KOREAN FOOD - TRY THE BIBIMBAP

23. GO TO AN AMUSEMENT PARK - TRY EVERLAND

24. GO AROUND - VISIT THE EHWA UNIVERSITY

25. ENJOY THE WEATHER