Blue vs Green: Archers on top 117-104

Respect the Don

Before Manny V. Pangilinan started bankrolling the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles cause, before De La Salle University was celebrated for its top notch guards- Mike Cortez, Ren-Ren Ritualo, Mac Cardona, Joseph Yeo and JVee Casio-- there was the instigator of the Archers' title run in the late 90s.

Don Carlos Allado, in his most dominant outing since-- well, he's DLSU days, scored 23 big points and hauled down 7 rebounds against an ADMU frontline that has been the best in the last decade. Enrico Villanueva, Doug Kramer and Japeth Aguilar all tried to keep Allado at bay, but there was no stopping "The Don" from winning it for his team.

It also didn't help the Ateneo cause that Allado benefited from playing alongside what is arguably the cream of the UAAP crop in recent memory. Cortez was orchestrating like it was 2000-2001, Cardona (minus the headband) had the old swag, smirk and teardrops back, Ritualo was Ritualo, Yeo was doing his Ninja thing and, well, Casio was burying back breaking, Mico Halili - "I HATE YOU CASIO!" threes time and again.

On the Bluer (literally and figuratively) side of things, the Eagles couldn't catch a break. Enrico Villanueva tried his best to break into the Archers' interior defense (which isn't much given that this was only an exhibition match), but the PBA rust definitely showed. Take nothing away from Allado, but even in his best day back in 1998, the guy wasn't much of a defender. Villanueva, being stuck playing behind Eric Menk, has lost most of his Samson machismo and jersey-popping swagger and it showed. Hell, even Carlos Sharma, a relatively solid big man but not a star like his Atenean half-brother Rabeh Al Husaini (who sat out the game with an injury), wasn't giving Villanueva anything easy.

And for all the recent accolades and citations, Norman Black did a poor job coaching the Eagles this time out. They weren't defending, opted for too may isolation plays for Villanueva and JC Intal, and when it was pretty clear that they weren't going to win this one, didn't bother to use his bench and use Wesley "Bang Bang" Gonzales (who was reportedly hurt, and we guess that it's not that he would've done anything other than start a possible riot given his history with the Archers' Cardona).

The Archers were blowing out the Eagles by as much as 21-- and they weren't even using the bigote-less birthday boy Franz Pumaren's dreaded defensive press.

It was THAT much of a blowout.

Still, credit goes to the players, alumni and organizers for a great, sold-out Sunday game. Perhaps they should consider shelving this for another five years, since we've already seen two exhibition games featuring the same players.

OR

It's time for a UAAP-NCAA PBA All Stars showdown. Better yet, a UAAP-NCAA vs UE PBA All Stars game. Imagine a line-up of Denok Miranda, Jayson Castro, Arwind Santos, Gabby Espinas and Beau Belga going up against Paul Lee, James Yap, Ronald Tubid, Mark Borboran and Nino Canaleta with Paul Artadi and Bonbon Custodio coming off the bench.

Friend @iamtheblur suggested a San Beda-San Sebastian All Stars match. But this writer argues that we won't be treated to a #dreamgame in that one, it would turn out to be a UFC match-- and that's from the bleachers section alone. Lol.