Vengeance Mode

Photo Credits: Jenner Ong, Alyson Yap and Rick Olivares

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start.

And just like that, the characters of the popular Nintendo 64 game Contra, suddenly go into overdrive mode. The main characters of the game, commandos Bill Rizer and Lance Bean¹ suddenly have a full set of powerups and infinite lives (okay, more like 30 lives) which allow you to go thru the game quite easily. I still remember the joy of discovering this cheat code, allowing me to go to vengeance mode and finish off the enemy.

Years later, I would discover Bill Simmon's² Vengeance Scale, a way for him to measure a certain person's vengeance factor after facing adversity and surviving it. As mentioned in his article, prime examples would include: Michael Corleone in Godfather 1, after his father, Vito was gunned down by a rival family; Daniel LaRusso in Karate Kid 1, after enduring much pain and antagonism from the Cobra Kai; and Michael Jordan, in the 1996 NBA season, after losing to the Magic in the 1995 NBA Playoffs. The Sports Guy offers countless more examples (which you can see here) but I guess you get the picture.

Which now brings me to the Ateneo Blue Eagles, post 2007 UAAP Season. After a painful ending to their 2007 UAAP campaign, wherein archrival De La Salle Green Archers eliminated them in their Final Four match. The Blue Eagles suddenly went into Vengeance Mode, winning 58 of their next 63 games³. The streak included winning 2 UAAP Championships, 2 Uni-Games Championships and 2 PCCL Championships. That's 6 titles out of 7 tournaments, 58 Wins and 5 Losses, a .921 winning percentage over the past 2 years, it's like somebody flicked a switch and suddenly, these boys forgot how to lose. And to think that after that 2007 debacle to the Archers, some disgruntled alumni were calling for Coach Black's head, fast forward to two years later, the Coach now has more bling than an OFW coming home for Christmas. Take that!

Regardless of any innuendos the other camp may say, we all know that there's no magic cheat code involved, no Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start which the team could push and magically turn themselves into an invincible unit. But how did it happen then? How could a team suddenly turn from perennial losers⁴, to undisputed champions in such a short span? 4 things stand out for me:

Reason No. 1: The team simply matured. Remember that except for Ryan Buenafe and Nico Salva, the core of the team has been playing together for the past 3 years. They've gone through thousands of hours of practice, endured painful defeats and had grown together as a team. You could see the maturity of the players especially during close games, wherein more often than not, they would manage to pull out a win.

Reason No. 2: Norman Black's System finally bore fruit. Now, I'm not an expert or anything as far as basketball systems or coaching are concerned, but I have been following the team since Coach Black took the reins in 2005⁵ and the one constant that he has been preaching has been Defense. Everyone on the team should play defense, not just straight man-to-man, but also team defense. While there have been glimpses of this during the 1st three years, the team finally became a force on defense during the 2008 UAAP season. Even the stats back this up, Ateneo was either number 1 or 2 in most major defensive categories.

Reason No. 3: The emergence of Nonoy Baclao. During the 2007 season, Baclao was playing in his 1st year for the Blue Eagles, he wasn't technically a rookie since he was a transferee from West Negros College wherein he played for 2 years, but 2007 was basically his first venture into big time college basketball. And it showed. Although he gave us glimpses of his enormous talent that year, he was mostly a foul-prone, offensively challenged, defensive specialist. Despite this, Nonoy was slowly improving each game, unfortunately, his improvement during the course of the year was not enough to prevent the Blue Eagles from losing in the Final Four to the eventual champions that year, the Green Archers. He did however, give us reason to hope. His coming out party actually happened in late 2007, during the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (then known as the Collegiate Champions League), wherein he won tournament MVP honors while leading the team to its 1st major basketball championship since 2002. From there, Baclao's rise to superstardom has been meteoric. By the start of the 2008 UAAP Season, he has been named one of the co-captains of the team, and was tasked to lead the team on the defensive end. And this he did, with much aplomb and success. He was basically the team's defensive anchor for the next 2 years, swatting and changing shots with such regularity that opponents eventually decided to just take the easy way out and opt for the low percentage outside shots. Rabeh might have been the team's go-to guy, and Chris might have been the leader of the team, but Nonoy was unquestionably the team's heart and soul. I truly believe this and I will argue this to death with anyone who believes otherwise.

Reason No. 4: The aforementioned Vengeance Factor. Yes, after years of falling short, losing in the Final Four to La Salle in 2005, to UST in the 2006 Finals⁶, and again, to La Salle in 2007, it was time for payback. And as they say, payback is a bitch. The team went on a rampage, and basically bulldozed their opposition the next 2 years. Although it might seem that they wanted to beat every team they faced during this period, a closer look would show that the team always played extra hard and were more motivated when facing UST and La Salle, the last 2 teams to knock them out of the last 3 UAAP seasons. Let's look at UST first, since that loss to them in the 2006 Finals, Ateneo has faced them a total of 10 times (UAAP and PCCL), in those 10 times, Ateneo's record against them is 9-1. Also, during that same span, Ateneo has eliminated UST in 4 out of 5 tournaments that they played⁷, it was only in the 2008 UAAP Season that UST was not eliminated by Ateneo, of course, that also happens to be the year wherein they didn't make the Final Four. Next up, La Salle. After the 2>3 debacle in 2007, Ateneo has faced them a total of 9 times, their record against them? 8-1⁸. Simply put, this team got tired of losing, they're tired, mad and ticked off, and with it, came the resolve to try to win every game that they played, especially against the teams that caused them their most recent heartaches. And that my friends, is the so-called Vengeance Factor.

One last thing, using The Sports Guy's Vengeance Scale, I would rate the Ateneo Blue Eagles at about 9.25, and only because they lost the 2008 PCCL Championship. However, if the Blue Eagles somehow manage to win the UAAP Championship again next year, I'm bumping up their rating to 12.25, and you know what, if I were a betting man (which I'm not), I wouldn't bet against this from happening.



¹ Yes, they have names, although as I kid, I always knew them as Sylvester Stallone's Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator.
² AKA The Sports Guy
³ Major tournaments only (UAAP; Uni-Games and PCCL)
⁴ I use this term loosely, after all, their 3 year UAAP record prior to the turnaround was at 34 wins and 16 losses (playoffs included), finishing 3rd twice, in 2005 and 2007, and 2nd once, in 2006.
⁵ Longer than that actually, I became a fan during their 1988 Championship Season, but since we're only talking about Coach Black's system, we'll stick with 2005.
⁶ This one still hurts. Until now, I still tell myself that Game 3 never happened...let's just move on before I start crying again.
⁷ 2007 and 2009 UAAP, 2007 and 2009 PCCL
⁸ That 1 loss was during the 2008 PCCL Finals, and of course, Ateneo played minus Chris Tiu and Ryan Buenafe, I'm not making excuses, but still.

All I Want for Christmas Is...

Photo Credits: Philip Sison

Yes, its that time of the year again, when everyone gets a chance to wish for something, and in the spirit of the holiday season, I'm coming up with my...

Top 7 Wish / Want List for Christmas:

1) A Lakers-Celtics Finals: I don't really root for any particular team in the NBA nowadays, the only team I actually rooted for were the 80's Showtime Lakers, after that, I only rooted for the teams that Kenny Anderson (My all-time favorite NBA player, and don't ask me why, because I don't know either) played for, the Nets, Hornets, Blazers and the Celtics. Now that he's retired, I'm basically an NBA orphan, a diehard NBA fan without a favorite team. Having said that, I still enjoy a good game, and for the past 3 years, the Lakers-Celtics Games have been the hottest ticket in town. Here's hoping that they do meet up again in the Finals this coming June, 2010.

2) Classic Transformers & GI Joe Toys: Come on Hasbro, more of the 80s version of these toys please. I know that you had to come up with updated (i.e. movie versions) of the toys to attract a new and younger fan base, but please please please, do not forget about your loyal fans, those who stuck with you through the bad years...bring back the Classic Transformers and GI Joes in their original packaging. For TF, I want a Classics/Henkei Wheeljack and Jazz. For GI Joe, I want a Shockwave, Wet-Suit, Hit & Run and Big Boa, and in original packaging please, none of the comic 2-pack and/or 7 pack crap.

3) A new and improved version of Mafia Wars: Actually, I'll settle for a working version of Mafia Wars. Please get your act together before its too late, too many issues on page loads, request errors and long loading times. And while you're at it, can you also give me a Liger and an Impression so that I can complete my Tigers Unleashed and Moscow Loot collection. A CM Dragon ( from Cuba Crates) and a Bugatti Veyron (from Limited Edition Loot) would also help in beefing up my car loot collection.

4) A World Series Championship for the Atlanta Braves: Huge Atlanta Braves fan, ever since the early 1990s. Next year will be Bobby Cox's last season as manager of the Braves, and as they say, "Let's win one for the skipper"

5) A Superbowl Championship for the New England Patriots: I know I know, it doesn't look too good right now, the defense is suspect, the offense is inconsistent, and Bill Belichick has been gasp...human. But hey, anything can still happen, and it doesn't hurt that they're still led by the immortal Tom Brady. Let's go Pats!

6) A Three-Peat for the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP: We are now entering year 3 of the Ryan Buenafe saga, and it promises to be another championship-filled year for the Blue Eagles. Ever since Ryan donned the blue and white, the team has won back-to-back UAAP and Uni-Games Championships, and 1 PCCL National Championship. That's 5 major championships in a span of 2 years (more on this on my next post...Vengeance Mode). And for next year, I have this feeling that Coach Black will finally unleash Ryan on the rest of the UAAP. Yikes!

7) Peace and Goodwill on Earth...and of course, an election win for Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all.

Holiday Readings

Photo Credits: Bill Simmons and Rick Olivares

Picked up a couple of books (okay, 1 book and 1 journal) these past few days. The first one is The Book of Basketball, by Bill Simmons, the other one is The 18th Banner, by Rick Olivares. Thoroughly enjoyed reading both of them.

The Book of Basketball
The NBA According to The Sports Guy
by: Bill Simmons

I was actually thinking of ordering the book from Amazon, but luckily, while looking around at Fully Booked Rockwell the other day, I saw a hardbound copy in their hobby/sports section and quickly picked it up.

I've been a huge fan of Bill Simmons since 1997, dating back to the days of his independent site (a site hosted by AOL I think), bostonsportsguy.com. During those days, he basically writes about the Boston area professional sports teams, the Celtics, Red Sox and the Patriots (maybe a bit of the Bruins too, before he totally lost interest in the NHL). He writes it from a fan's perspective, which in a way is refreshing because you could almost actually relate to him when you read his articles. He also has a tendency to include pop-culture references to his sports articles, which make them infinitely more entertaining. An example would be, instead of writing a straight forward piece about what happened during the most recent NBA off-season, he would somehow manage to write it using quotes from a movie (in this case, Almost Famous) He's a bit mainstream now, moving to LA and becoming a columnist for ESPN's Page 2. Although this has given him more access to the sports and pop-culture world, he still manages to be true to his roots, that of writing something that the fans or an everyday person can relate to (now, if only he can write more often and podcast less). Anyway, check him out on his Page 2 site in ESPN: Sports Guy's World

About the book, it's a must read for NBA fanatics. My favorite parts are the What If Game and the Hall of Fame Pyramid. The book is quite long, almost 700 pages, but there's no need to read it from cover to cover since it is not your typical beginning-middle-end type of book wherein you have to read it in one sitting. Its actually like a compilation of several short articles, so you can pick it up and put it down as many times as you want.

For those of you who haven't bought it, two things to take note of before buying the book:

1) Do not buy the Kindle edition for this particular book, it contains tons of footnotes (which is integral to the stories) and reading it through Kindle would be awkward.

2) The paperback edition is due to come out sometime late next year, for those who want updated information, better wait for that version.

The 18th Banner
Ateneo's UAAP Season 71
by: Rick Olivares

I've been waiting for this ever since Rick Olivares mentioned it in his blog. When it finally came out last week, I immediately went to the Loyola Schools Bookstore in Ateneo and got myself a copy.

The journal details the path that the Ateneo Blue Eagles took towards winning the 2008 UAAP Men's Basketball Championship. While it was full of photos, game accounts and even statistics (boxscores are posted below each game story), honestly, I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting a lot more inside stories, and I was hoping to know more personal stuff about our hardcourt heroes (not the fan-girl stuff but you know, personal basketball stuff that only the team or insiders know, like who's the best student after Chris Tiu, who's the team clown, who arrives the earliest at practice and who stays the latest after practice, who trash talks the most - probably Eric Salamat and Ryan Buenafe in that order...but yeah, something along those lines).

I don't know, maybe I'm just a bit spoiled, as I do get a lot of information already from Rick's blog: Bleachers' Brew and from the different Ateneo basketball fora (specifically, Blue Eagles' Nest from the Gameface Forum) But don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the journal, and if you are in any way shape or form an Ateneo Blue Eagle fan, this is a must buy, a way to preserve the memories of that wondrous and epic season.

Anyway, try to get these books, you won't regret it. They're actually a nice segue to my next post, entitled Vengeance Mode. Stay tuned.

Nerdvana

Nerd (noun) - a technically bright but socially inept person; an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit

Nirvana (noun) - a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world; an ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy

Nerdvana (noun) - ideal state of geekness

I first heard of the word Nerdvana from the sitcom Big Bang Theory (I love this show); the show mainly deals with the lives of 2 physicists (Leonard and Sheldon) and their interaction with their attractive blonde neighbor (Penny). Leonard and Sheldon's geekiness and intellect are contrasted with Penny's social skills and common sense for comedic effect. The term Nerdvana is often mentioned in the show to describe the pursuits of the lead characters...this would include Halo Night, Comic Book Night, Star Wars Marathon, ... etc.

Watching the show made me think what my own Nerdvana is, what truly makes me happy even without or with very minimal social interaction. Here is what I came up with so far:

1) My Toy & Comic Collection (mostly Transformers and GI Joe, with a sprinkling of Justice League of America);

2) My DVD Collection (wide range of genre, including war movies, teen flicks, cartoons, drama flicks and more)

3) Sports (NBA, MLB, NFL, and to a certain extent, the PBA)

4) Computer Games (currently addicted to Mafia Wars...used to eat sleep and drink Counter-Strike and Command and Conquer, also used to play console games)

5) Ateneo Blue Eagles (Back to Back, yeah baby!)

That is the list so far...my own personal Nerdvana