WITH its humiliating defeat on Saturday, La Salle is now being labeled an unworthy title contender in the UAAP basketball championship.
The way Ateneo manhandled La Salle, it is hard to believe that the Green Archers could capture the crown stripped from them by the Blue Eagles in 2017.
Look, Ateneo dethroned La Salle last year even with the legendary Ben Mbala still in the Archer lineup.
Include Ricci Rivero and, simply, La Salle was deemed virtually unstoppable in scoring a repeat of its gallant 2016 triumph.
And, yes, wasn’t the sensational Aldin Ayo calling the shots for La Salle then?
Remember, Ayo got aboard because of La Salle godfather Danding Cojuangco, who was impressed by Ayo’s fairytale stewardship of Letran in its 2015 NCAA victory.
So thorough was Ateneo’s humbling of La Salle in 2017 that it led to the virtual disintegration of the Archer nucleus of Ayo, Mbala and Rivero—a chilling development that caused the premature collapse of a much-ballyhooed renaissance for the Taft-based squad.
After Ayo moved to University of Sto. Tomas last year, La Salle got further crippled by Mbala’s sudden departure to play for a professional team in Mexico.
And, as if that was not enough, La Salle would next see the exit of Rivero for the flimsiest of reasons that his product endorsements would disbar him from continuing to don the La Salle jersey.
Next thing we knew, Rivero is with the University of the Philippines and is set to play as a Maroon next season.
La Salle, suddenly now in tatters, is in a rebuilding process, yes, but its woes are such that its Kiwi reinforcement Samuel Taane is on the injured list, leaving a huge hole in the middle.
So, who was surprised when Ateneo scored that 71-55 rout of La Salle on Saturday for the Archers’ third loss as against the Eagles’ fifth straight win against a lone defeat?
Not me.
Now this: Will the Ateneo-La Salle rematch in Round 2 draw the same sell-out crowd of Round 1?
In fairness, I say yes.
Only in their matchup do we see, consistently, a crowd that cares only for the game they watch. Never the result.