By: Jason Espiritu and Dennis Jerome Acosta
THE UNIVERSITY of Sto. Tomas Growling Tigers assured themselves of a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four of the UAAP via a 11-3 win-loss card after beating their last opponent, Adamson Falcons earlier this afternoon.
With only UST, as of now, assured of a twice to beat incentive, we present to you all the remaining scenarios for the UAAP final four, pending the last two playdates of the UAAP season this Saturday, November 14 and Wednesday, November 18.
Scenario One: FEU beats NU on Saturday and DLSU on Wednesday.
If this happens, FEU will be assured of the top seed, finishing with a 12-2 win-loss card. UST, assured of at least a second seed after finishing with an 11-3 win loss record, will face Ateneo while DLSU and NU who will both finish with a 6-8 card shall meet in a playoff match to earn the right to face FEU in the final four.
Scenario Two: FEU beats NU, DLSU beats FEU / NU beats FEU, FEU beats DLSU.
If you notice, two potential outcomes have been lumped into one scenario for should any one team between NU and DLSU defeat FEU, while the other one team fails to beat FEU, the team who defeats FEU earns an outright #4 seed while the team who loses fall out of contention for the final four.
FEU, with an extra loss finishes the eliminations with an identical 11-3 win-loss record with UST. However, due to UST sweeping the elimination matchups with FEU, The former team earns top seed and will face the team who defeated FEU while the latter team faces Ateneo with a twice to beat advantage.
Scenario Three: FEU loses to both NU and DLSU, Ateneo defeats UE on Saturday.
Things will really get interesting should this happen for not only will FEU lose the top spot but they will also have to face Ateneo in a virtual best-of-three, with both teams finishing with a 10-4 win-loss record, playing a playoff game for the second seed.
The winner of the playoff will earn a twice to beat incentive over the loser of the playoff match.
NU and DLSU, finishing with an identical and even 7-7 win-loss record, will have a playoff for the fourth seed, to determine who will face the top seed in the UAAP final four, UST.
UST Coach Bong dela Cruz said after winning against Adamson that they will watch the games and hope for the best spot available. They will also take a very short break to rest and recover from all the nagging injuries. He also said he doesn’t have a definite plan yet on how to manage the long break for the Tigers as they play waiting game for their next prey.
On the other hand, DLSU head coach Juno Sauler, after their win against UP, said that they will need to play with all their heart, despite the multitude of injuries hounding their team, in order to make it to the final four. He further added that they are not looking all the way to the final four yet but are rather taking things, one game at a time.
There you have it, all the possible scenarios involving #KaguloSaUAAP. Now all we need to do is sit back, relax and see which of this sceasrios will materialize come the UAAP Final Four.
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