THINGS couldn’t have fared better for the NCAA as its first season after breaching the century mark pits the biggest rivals and two of the most successful men’s basketball teams in the league, in San Beda and Letran in the championship.
San Beda, winners of 23 NCAA men’s basketball titles, eyes its second championship in three years and prove once again that it’s the most dominant force in the oldest collegiate league in the country.
READ: San Beda brings fire extinguisher in title duel vs red-hot Letran
Letran, on the other hand, will look to close the gap on its rivals by winning title no. 21 and reclaim the crown after completing a three-peat in NCAA Season 98 and finally wash away the bitter taste of the two-win season in S99 and a heartbreaking S100 finish where they missed out on the semis.
READ: Letran braces for all-out war for all the marbles vs San Beda
Before the two storied teams meet again in a three-game series starting on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, let’s take a look at how these two teams stack up against each other.
Title still goes through Mendiola
Before the season, San Beda was surprisingly an afterthought to most onlookers with all eyes on defending champion Mapua and the retooled line-up of St. Benilde and Letran.
Most people knew that the Red Lions were going to be a good team, no question, but few people outside of Mendiola expected them to be here in the finals, nevermind winning it all with the aforementioned three squads getting all the attention in the preseason.
READ: Look no further than San Beda to see most consistent collegiate contender
But alas, the Red Lions showed why they’re the most storied basketball team in the league as they were easily the most impressive team in the regular season, topping Group A with a 9-4 record, with losses that seriously could’ve gone either way.
With Janti Miller coming out as a bonafide go-to guy, Bryan Sajonia doing his job as the secondary bucket-getter and guards like Nygel Gonzales and Jimmy Reyes stabilizing the team, the Red Lions not only weathered the absences of veterans Yukien Andrada and Jomel Puno throughout the season – they dominated despite it.
While they dropped a game in the semifinals, people shouldn’t forget that they were one Ian Torres game-winner away from sweeping the mighty Blazers in the semis – a game where they also missed the services of Miller who sat out with a knee contusion.
Knights peaking at the right time
While Letran had all the hype entering Season 101, that hype was quickly derailed after the Knights dropped their first three games of the tournament – two of those coming against perennial rivals in San Beda and St. Benilde.
All the Knights needed, though, was more time to jell – especially with point guard Titing Manalili running their offense like a strict, but brilliant conductor to an orchestra.
The moment they did, the Knights turned into the best offensive team in the league and they did so with flair and style, with Manalili running the show while maximizing the bevy of offensive talents that he has in Jimboy Estrada, Kevin Santos, Deo Cuajao and Jun Roque.
READ: Magical Manalili makes weary Letran community believe once more
The boys of coach Allen Ricardo have won 11 of their last 13 games since that stretch, and are now riding on a six-game winning streak – including sweeps over Arellano University in the quarterfinals, and the top-seeded Perpetual Altas in the semis.
Always a believer of peaks, Ricardo is happy to see his team reach the top of their game right in time for the grand showdown.
Two brilliant young stars built differently
All eyes will certainly be on the stars of both squads, with Manalili the face of Letran’s fast-paced, fancy basketball while Miller leads San Beda’s methodical attack on offense.
While the two young studs were pretty much two of the best players in the league, they both elevated their respective games in the semifinals to help lead their squads to this titanic title duel between bitter rivals.
Manalili did his magic by running the offense to perfection. In the series against Perpetual, the Cebuano maestro put up all-around averages of 15.5 points, 11 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 steals per game.
Miller, on the other hand, was simply a walking, talking bucket.
The Fil-American transferee averaged 27.5 points per game to go along 7.5 boards as the Blazers simply had no answers for him one-on-one with his ability to light up the scoreboard on all three-levels a problem for coach Charles Tiu and St. Benilde.
Though they play different positions and impact their teams differently, it’s no secret that fans will be tuning in to this game to watch these two collegiate stars do their thing for their respective squads.
If their last regular season meeting was any indication -- a game where Manalili finished with 26 points and 11 assists while Miller dropped a career-high 34 points -- it's that this series is going to be lit with them as the main protagonists.
It’s in the three-ball
One thing that San Beda did so well in its two wins over St. Benilde was to hit the three-ball at a consistent level.
In the games San Beda won, the Red Lions shot 11 and 12 threes respectively, with Miller, Sajonia and Andrada all finding their marks from the outside. On the flipside, the Blazers squeaked out a victory over the Red Lions by nullifying the three-ball, limiting them to just four threes in game two.
READ: Captain Yuki playing like a man on a mission for San Beda
The good news for Letran? They’re one of the best teams at limiting three pointers all season long as they’ve kept their opponents to a lowly 23.6 percent clip in 17 games this season.
Paint beasts vs. Fiery gunners
While there are a bevy of things that Letran does well, rebounding has been a sore spot for coach Ricardo and his players with it the only notable weakness in their game, particularly in the series against the Chiefs and the Altas.
With the team built to run and gun, rebounding has been an issue for the Knights as they ranked in the bottom of the tournament in that department. On the flipside, San Beda has been the best rebounding team in the league, and that’s something that the Knights will have to work on in this tussle.
Letran, on the other hand, will be relying on its well-rounded offense to stymie San Beda’s run to title no. 24.
The Knights are the best three-point shooting team in the league, the best passing team in the league and they also get to the line fairly well, with different players capable of exploding at any time.
Shifting tides?
While San Beda still has Letran’s number in their finals meetings in the modern day era – ahead at 3-2 since the Red Lions’ rise to dominance in the early 00s, the Knights seem to have found their footing in the past decade.
The Knights have won the last two meetings against the Red Lions – first back in NCAA Season 91 where Aldin Ayo’s boys stunned the highly-favored squad of coach Jamike Jarin, and in Season 95 which kicked off Bonnie Tan’s three-peat with the Knights.
Since that fateful meeting six years ago, Letran made the finals twice once more, beating both Mapua and St. Benilde, while San Beda has made the finals once since then – also beating Mapua for title number 23 back in Season 99.
Will Letran continue to have San Beda’s number in this meeting or will the Red Lions finally bite back against their old rivals.
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