This setback however, while not totally unexpected, seemed lost to many local basketball fans. With reason: July meant the beginning of the always hotly-contested college basketball season.

               Yes my friends, the UAAP and the NCAA take center stage again and many thought the leagues would simply pick up where they left off and there would be another banner year for college basketball. After all, last year saw the twin triumphs of teams people had almost written off – the Growling Tigers of UST and the Red Lions of San Beda College. Both ended their respective droughts last season.

               Well, it still could, but one could say that the year of the protests and the first semester of discontent would overshadow whoever would be crowned as kings at the end of the long campaign. Which also gives rise to a sad truth – nothing spikes causal interest as much as disharmony and chaos.

PCU: Transcript switcheroo

               Take for example the case of Philippine Christian University, which found itself suspended by the NCAA for the entire year because the school fielded players in their junior teams who were using someone else’s transcripts as their own. It is also alleged that the practice is adopted system-wide by the school, which achieved some prominence by capturing the men’s seniors hoops crown in 2004 but whose overall achievements have been tainted.

               There is even some talk within those in the know that expulsion is certainly a possibility unless massive reforms and institutional changes are made by PCU in order to be taken back into the NCAA fold.

De La Salle: falsified documents

               And then there is De La Salle University, which returns to action after a similar one-year suspension imposed by the NCAA on all college sports events for fielding two players in 2004 and 2005 who were academically ineligible since they had falsified their college admission documents (read: scholastic equivalency exams). The finding forced De La Salle to surrender the championship in 2004.

               Many who felt the one-year ban was a bit too lenient since the school violated a major rule regarding players, while some felt it was actually too severe since like PCU, all the sports teams of the school were grounded, even those which had nothing to do with the basketball program.

               Nevertheless, those who needed their minimal twice-annual fix of the fabled Ateneo-La Salle rivalry (like broadcast giant ABS-CBN which owns the rights to both leagues and airs the games on the US West Coast at dawn) gladly welcomed back the Green Archers into the fold.

UST: overage athlete

               But even before the UAAP season could begin, a bombshell exploded on España with questions surrounding the eligibility of King Tiger Jojo Duncil, who had come into his own the previous season and was named Finals MVP. The Pampanga native, by the admission of University of Sto. Tomas’s own athletics head, had two birth certificates certified by the National Statistics Office, one of which would make him ineligible to play this year as he would be turning 25.

               There is no question that whatever certificate he goes by, Duncil was still legit last year when UST won. But why the existence of the two documents? UST, which is hosting this year’s tournament, got lucky that the matter was somehow glossed over but there are still serious questions that need answers.

               This led Duncil to declare that even though he was listed in the line-up, he would forego his final year and instead turn pro, probably to deflect those same questions. But when the defending champions got off to a poor start by losing its first two games, Duncil was being pressed back to the line-up.

               UST tried to call for an emergency board meeting for precisely this purpose but fortunately, nothing came of the charade because it would have made a mockery of everything that remains good and decent in college basketball.

On-court issues

               And on the court, there were some issues as well. In the game between old school-old boys club rivals San Beda College and Colegio de San Juan de Letran, the underdog Letran Knights came up with a gritty endgame stand to stun the favored Red Lions, who were gunning for a first round sweep.

               However, the formal end of the game was delayed by some 15 minutes as new San Beda coach Frankie Lim, a former King Lion who had replaced Koy Banal at the helm during the off season, protested that a two-point shot made by standout guard Pong Escobal should have been counted as a triple. Countless reviews upheld the referees’ decisions.

               And in the first Ateneo-La Salle game in two years, the underdog Blue Eagles came through in overtime to beat their arch-nemesis in overtime with supreme grunt work. But the game was placed under protest because, according to DLSU, there was moment in the second quarter when Ateneo simultaneously fielded their two “foreign-born” players on the floor.

               Quaint league rules allow a maximum of two “foreign-born” players on each squad’s 14-man line-up but only one may be fielded at a time. And, indeed, due to oversight, both American Kirk Long and Australian-born Zion Laterre of Ateneo were together on the floor for six seconds, although the protest was eventually thrown out for lack of merit.

               This engendered a review of the principles behind the rule (to prevent the richer, more moneyed schools from recruiting better foreign athletes obviously), and to make sure guidelines are in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

CSB: point-shaving

               And just when college basketball thought things couldn’t get worse, it did.

               Paolo Orbeta is a senior at College of St. Benilde (CSB), one of the colleges of the De La Salle system. He missed the NCAA games all of last season because of academic difficulties as De La Salle moved quickly to strengthen its athletics programs by putting in place more stringent measures.

               His return this year (along with PCU’s suspension) gave hope to the weak CSB Blazers that they could make a splash this season after four years being out of contention. But a 1-6 record was all they could muster and they were dead last in the standings.

               Two days before their next game, Orbeta was picked up by the National Bureau of Investigation in a sting operation after he allegedly coerced another person to bet a million pesos on Orbeta because he would shave points off his play against San Sebastian College in a first round game.

               The CSB Blazers did lose but Orbeta scored exactly 11 points which made his “mark” lose the bet. When Orbeta tried to collect his share, he brought along a few cronies along with a cop, but the NBI swooped in and collared Orbeta and his pals in the act of collecting the money.

               Right now, Orbeta’s playing career, even if he gets off scot-free, seems to be over. Not after the NBA’s own Tim Donaghy fiasco will people be easy to forgive those who tamper with sports.

               Indeed, these are not local college hoops’ best times…but you can, uh, bet, it’s going to be better.