Retrospective: The Ateneo - La Salle Final Four

Sometimes, statistics tell the story and interpret it the way you want it to be. See if you can discern this game.

Final Four Preview Snippets

On UST - NU (UST with twice-to-beat edge)

1. Karim Abdul vs Emmanuel John Mbe. Great Gatorade duel in the making. Both players invaluable for their offensive output in the low post.

2. Kevin Ferrer's defense on Rayray Parks. The UAAP MVP will be a handful, and the former Tiger Cub will be UST's first option to try to stop him from stuffing the stat sheet.

3. NU PG play. Endgame execution is key, and that means both Alolino and Rono need to keep things steady.

On Ateneo-La Salle (Ateneo with twice-to-beat edge)

1. Archer big consistency. Norbert Torres and Arnold Van Opstal were huge in the fourth quarter in the playoff game against the Bringas brothers, Escoto and Hargrove. They'll need to be at par with that against Ateneo, if not, then Yutien Andrada, Papot Paredes and Jovet Mendoza need to step up.

2. Perimeter shooting. La Salle won't be shooting that bad again from there, right? Vosotros, Revilla and Teng can't be atrocious for two straight game. Ateneo is not known to shoot well from distance as well.

3. Ryan Buenafe. He lives for these kind of moments. Against La Salle, in the postseason, when the chips are down..

Final Four Profile: Kentucky

The Big Blue Nation is back in the Final Four for the first time since 1998. Their coach has been "familiar" with this situation before (although those were eventually vacated after certain irregularities coincidentally came out). It is also unique, because this bunch went further than last year with all those major one-and-done contributors that became NBA first-rounders.





Who is Kentucky, anyway?

Location: Lexington, Kentucky

Head Coach: John Calipari

Key Players: Brandon Knight, Doron Lamb, Deandre Liggins, Terence Jones, Josh Harrellson, Darius Miller

NBA alums: 71. That's a whole freakin' lot of people who played in the NBA.

Other famous alum/s: Ashley Judd is really the only one that matters. See pic below:

Road to Final Four: Princeton, West Virginia, Ohio State, North Carolina

Final Four Profile: Butler

 The Butler Bulldogs are the first team since the old-school Runnin' Rebels of UNLV in the early 90s to make back-to-back Final Four appearances coming from a school outside of the members of the BCS  Power Six Conferences.




Who is Butler, anyway?

Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Head Coach: Brad Stevens

Key Players: Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard, Andrew Smith, Ronald Nored, Shawn Vanzant

NBA alums: 4, but Gordon Hayward is the first one since the NBA-ABA merger.

Other famous alums: Bobby Plump (of "Hoosiers" fame), Thad Matta (men's basketball coach at Ohio State), Jim Jones (cult leader of the People's Temple, whose members committed suicide in Guyana)

Road to Final Four: Old Dominion, Pitt, Wisconsin, Florida