UAAP Season 79 Preview: Building the championship formula for NU

MANILA, Philippines – During the press conference for the upcoming UAAP season, the coaches for the men’s basketball teams were asked who they thought were the dark horse contenders for the crown. Ateneo and Adamson were floated around as dark horse teams.

It wasn’t too long ago that the National University Bulldogs were lumped into that “dark horse” contender tag and not the Blue Eagles. Times sure have changed, and NU is now a perennial contender. And they will contend once more this season.

The championship core of two years ago is greatly diminished, leaving only team captain Alfred Aroga, point guard Rev Diputado, shooting guard JJ Alejandro, and forward Dave Yu as the only holdovers. They’ve got newcomers (and Team B call-ups) Chino Mosqueda, who will be a terrific two-way player for this team; shooting guard JV Gallego, who can create his own shot; rifleman Matt Salem, who has tasted hoops glory when he suited up for La Salle’s UAAP champions from Season 76; and center Matthew Aquino, who is getting better with every game. And if former Ateneo De Cebu standout Joshua Sinclair can make his presence felt, head coach Eric Altamirano will have a young and talented team that will be built to contend and win in the long run.

What makes this team frightening is they are a squad built with winners. Aside from the aforementioned ones, Gallego and forward Meds Salim won a smattering of championships at Chiang Kai Shek College. Reggie Morido, Mosqueda and Caulian also won with the NU Bullpups while Niko Abatayo won with the San Beda Red Cubs.

This is one ingredient of Ateneo’s championship-proven formula along with solid recruiting and winning coaching; a market share the Bulldogs also possess.

However, there’s one other key ingredient, and that is the mania for defense.

During the summer, even with a young lineup, the Bulldogs ranked third in defense right behind Perpetual Help and College of Saint Benilde (a misnomer consider they didn’t win anything in the pre-season and still haven’t won anything in this NCAA season). If you want to glean more info from that, NU was tops in the summer tourney among UAAP schools and that is impressive.

More to that formula. NU isn’t a mere copycat or copydog to be more apt. They have their own formula and they look to clone some of that for this year. Altamirano is grooming Morido (they tried Abatayo but the former looks better at it) to play the role that former stud Glenn Khobutin did — that slashing forward who was also tough under the boards. Aquino is like Troy Rosario who can hit those triples and play strong underneath. Now, if he can drive to that basket like a freight train then watch out!

In Mosqueda they have that defensive stopper and all-around yeoman who will harass, play the passing lanes, do the dirty work, and sting you with a medium range or even three pointer. This young man with a marvelous work ethic will one day be this team’s captain and set an example for his teammates.

Plus, they’ve got their plethora of long-range bombers.

Those were key ingredients to NU’s historic championship formula from two seasons ago.

But any talk of another title will be determine by how Alfred Aroga plays. The big man hasn’t displayed the form he did two years ago. Some will say that he has been disappointing since. Whatever it is, if he can be that aggressive old self where he would dunk on anyone and everyone aside from erasing shots like they didn’t belong in the league, then NU could have their anti-Mbala. Their force in the middle in which everyone will revolve around.

It isn’t only on the Cameroonian (although he does carry the weight of this team on his shoulders), the onus too is on this young team to grow up quickly. They might have their eye to the future but why not the here and now?

No one will take this team lightly that’s for sure.