HOME games are rare in the UAAP, especially in the men’s basketball tournament.
That’s why it came as a surprise for Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin that his side had to play on the road against University of Santo Tomas in the latter’s backyard on Saturday.
“I don’t know when was the last time where you played a road game in the UAAP. It doesn’t really happen and it was a mystery to us why that happened,” the outspoken mentor said.
Yet as a rarity as it was to have these home games, the league clarified that it’s just plain and simple scheduling.
With the usual venues like Smart Araneta Coliseum and Mall of Asia Arena booked in advance, the UAAP had to find a venue to stage the games on Saturday, as well as those on Nov. 3 and 13.
Thus, season host University of the Philippines made the call to bring the games to UST.
Adamson Gym has also hosted games this season, but the smaller venue was only utilized for the womens and junior high school tournaments so far.
It doesn’t mean that the other member-schools don’t have gyms worthy of staging games at.
Ateneo’s Moro Lorenzo Sports Center has hosted preseason games in the past, while the Blue Eagle Gym is still under renovation.
Far Eastern University has a few courts it can utilize, but most of those can only be deemed as practice venues. The FEU Institute of Technology Gym, however, was the venue for the chess competitions last season.
University of the Philippines is in the same boat as there’s a few inside the Diliman campus that the UAAP can utilize, notably the Epsilon Chi Center and the UP Diliman Varsity Training Center, which serves as the practice grounds for the Fighting Maroons.
Its College of Human Kinetics (CHK) Gym is still under renovation.
La Salle, with its Enrique Razon Sports Center; University of the East, with its newly refurbished Lucio K. Tan Jr. Gym; and National University’s gyms are courts which are all located at the top floor of their respective buildings.
However, the biggest issue for these three will be the audience seating.
But as promising as the prospects of holding more home games are in the future, don’t expect these to be the norm.
Remember: the league is breaking ground The Home of the UAAP in Pasig in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the 6,000-seating arena planned to open in 2027 and is made to address such future scheduling problems that may arise.
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