I’ll tell you what. Inasmuch as I completely despise the (alleged) cheating situation at DLSU, and the ensuing investigation that left more questions than answers, I gotta say that La Salle’s leave of absense from the UAAP is not the right step to alleviate the situation.
Sure DLSU deserves to get punished. And I promise you, that says a lot coming from me, who has followed the UAAP and DLSU long enough for me to be embarrassed to admit it. (which is a big no-no since on my blog, I am forever young.)
Ahem. Back to DLSU, sure they need to get their butts kicked. Those responsible should be punished, fined, removed from having to do anything with the UAAP and DLSU sports, and made to make public apologies.
AND THEN, WE MOVE ON.
As quickly as possible please. Get it done and over with, then let’s put it behind us and go watch some basketball.
Everyone hear me out. Can you imagine a UAAP basketball season without DLSU? I’m not waving any flags here believe me, but Franz Pumaren is a goddam genius for lack of a more appropriate term.
In the past years he’s coached a bunch of guys who are in no way the best in their positions. He didn’t have the best point guard. He didn’t have the best forwards. He certainly didn’t have the best centers.
And what did he get? Five championships in eight years. I don’t need to all-caps, bold, or use exclamation marks to highlight that one. It just stands out all by itself.
He had to deal with superstar egos, a (perceived) lack of personnel, an unappreciative league, and all sorts of talk talk talk. But like in any sport, the beauty of it is that the results speak for themselves. You can talk till you’re hoarse, but a bunch of green DLSU logos with ‘champion’ written on them, strung up together at the end of the year shuts everyone up period.
And that’s just the coach. The more important thing is the fact that we’re going to miss the one true stopping force I’ve ever seen in any league – the DLSU defense – a true classic, a basketball force of nature if I’d ever saw one – that makes a bunch of ordinary guys look like heroes, and make a bunch of good-looking heroes look like grade school kids against pros.
Walt Frazier said it best in an interview how there’s nothing that can drain an opponent’s will like a full-court trapping defense. There is utter hopelessness in their eyes. They’ll start pointing fingers, look to their coach and each other for answers, but of course not find any. Then they start trying to ‘take over’. Try to individually do things by themselves. And that’s when you know you have ’em.
I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it, I saw it in DLSU’s opponent’s eyes, and damn do I wanna see it again.
And that’s the important thing there, see. I’m you’re typical basketball lover. Hence, I wanna see some basketball. I don’t wanna see a bunch of guys hurling invectives, cursing, blaming, calling each other names and hiding things from each other. I don’t wanna see an investigation. I don’t wanna see a report.
I want them to just stop everything, find out who to blame, kick him out, then let’s all get ready for next year. I’m sure that’s what everybody wants too. I wanna see those kids play. They’re good at it.
They’re so good at it that whoever wins cannot righteously call themselves champions without having to play through that D. Can you consider yourself a champion if you don’t play the team that won 5 out of the last 8 seasons?
Do we want that?