WITH one more playdate left in this wild UAAP Season 88 men's basketball tournament, three spots in the Final Four are already set.
League leaders National U (11-3) and University of the Philippines (10-4) are fixed at the top two spots which comes with the crucial twice-to-beat incentives. But many are wondering why University of Santo Tomas, at 8-5 (win-loss), is already a lock at No. 3?
SCENARIOS: One playoff berth left for La Salle, Ateneo, FEU to fight over
That question is valid considering that La Salle, at 7-6, can still forge a tie with the Tigers with a win against archrival Ateneo and a UST loss to FEU on Wednesday.
Adding to the confusion is that the Growling Tigers and the Green Archers split their elimination series and both won those games by nine points - with UST taking the 93-84 victory last Sept. 27 and La Salle settling the score, 86-77, on Oct. 25.
But it's not really that complicated as the UAAP adheres by the Fiba rules when it comes to breaking ties.
Under that setup, tiebreaks follow a certain hierarchy which is as follows: 1) head-to-head record; 2) point differential in head-to-head matches; 3) points scored in head-to-head matches; 4) point differential in all of the games; and 5) points scored in all of the games. In the extreme case that the teams are still tied after those five conditions, the tie can be broken via a draw, usually via toss coin.
As for the theoretical guise where both teams end up with identical 8-6 win-loss records, though they split the season series and scored 170 points each, UST has the upper hand with its plus-63 (1126-1063) against La Salle's plus-4 (1020-1016) through 13 games.
Unless the Growling Tigers get blown out by 30 points or more and the Green Archers win by a humongous 30-point margin or more - in a season that has been the most competitive and has seen the fewest routs in years - that No. 3 spot is cast in stone.
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