Photo courtesy of Ubelt.com

The 85th edition of the NCAA opened with a bang last Saturday, kicking off the college basketball season. Defending champion San Beda dominated Mapua in the first game, 85-52, while last year's runner-up JRU staved off Letran in the second, 65-62. In the third game that wasn't televised, San Sebastian welcomed their new mentor Ato Agustin with an impressive 76-64 victory over Perpetual Help.

San Beda looked about as well as they looked at any other time over the past three seasons, each of which ended up in a championship. The Red Lions were without their three best players from last season, Sam Ekwe, Pong Escobal, and Ogie Menor, but Frankie Lim's boys didn't seem to care. Their frontline was especially productive, with returnees Jake Pascual, Dave Marcelo, and JR Taganas teaming up with new import Sudan Daniel. Coming into the season, I figured San Beda's backcourt might struggle with Escobal, the team's leader, leaving and starting point guard Borgie Hermida still recovering after blowing out his knee in the Philippine Collegiate Championships late last year. After seeing them against Mapua though, maybe it doesn't matter.

Or maybe it does, especially with this Mapua team. Apart from losing their leader and best player, former MVP Kelvin de la Pena, they also lost their coach Leo Isaac to the pro ranks. That would have been bad enough, but their starting point guard Jonathan Banal will also miss the season after blowing out his knee. So perhaps a win over the Cardinals, despite being impressive, should be taken with a grain of salt.

The second game was much more exciting, with JRU eking out a victory over a game Letran squad who came back from being down by as much as 11 points in the third quarter. The Bombers are heavily-touted this season, and with good reason: they have the best starting crew in the tournament, with an intact five from the team that pushed San Beda to the limit last season.

But JRU can also be the most maddening team to watch (and I could imagine, coach). They're surely talented, but they're also very inconsistent throughout the game. They can be brilliant for stretches, combining their athletic gifts with grit and hustle, but then they would suddenly lapse into a coma, playing lackadaisically, missing layups, and settling for long jumpshots.

Letran, on the other hand, is a team in flux. On one hand, they have eight rookies on the roster, but they also have RJ "So Cool" Jazul and Rey Guevarra, the only members of the Smart Gilas RP Developmental Basketball Team currently playing in the NCAA. They have a paper-thin frontline after their three best big guys (Dino Daa, Alvyn Cabonce, and Regin Ranises) graduated, but also have the best coach in the league in Louie Alas, who has never missed the Final Four in seven seasons coaching the Knights.

As a Letran fan, I was ecstatic despite the loss after seeing the second-half emergence of Kevin Alas, the highly-touted Letran freshman who was heavily recruited by Ateneo and La Salle before deciding to play for his dad--you must admit, Letran had the inside track for recruitment. He had the jitters in the first half, but he came alive late in the third quarter, slicing through the JRU defense, harrassing Cagoco up the court, and sparking the Knights comeback.

He's really really really really really really good. He makes me giddy.

I know it's only been one game, and I'm totally looking at things from red-and-blue-colored glasses, but Kevin Alas will be the best guard currently playing in the collegiate ranks not named Mark Barocca.

He has great athletism, he hustles on defense, and he has great basketball IQ, as coaches' sons usually have. Right now, he's still feeling things out, trying to fit into what the team is trying to do, never straying out of the system. There was a telling sequence in the fourth quarter of the game when he held the ball at the right side above the three-point line trying to make an entry pass, but JRU was denying the post. Alas glanced at his dad, who nodded to tell him to go for it, so he went ahead and beat Cagoco off the dribble for a layup. Just a great basketball play, and I'm sure there will be so many more in the years to come.

I was disappointed that the San Sebastian game wasn't televised, because I was curious about how the Stags looked especially after their impressive performance in preseason tournaments. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ato Agustin will do well, if not now then over the long term, as he puts his stamp on the Stags with his recruitment. Agustin also has access to basketball-rich Pampanga, where he is revered as a cult hero.

(On that note, do you ever wonder why Pampanga has been churning out all these quality players? No, it's not a special Capampangan gene, but it's the basketball infrastructure in the province--kids with potential are identified early on, and there's an abundance of tournaments for them to play in all year, giving them access to good coaching.)

It's great news that San Sebastian would finally become relevant again, after years of mediocrity. Even though they're Letran's fiercest rival (prior to the Lions' recent success), the NCAA will be a much better league with a good team from Baste, which has one of the best fanbases in all of college basketball.