Juan Gomez De Liano

#UPRising: Here come the Fighting Maroons

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The Fighting Maroons from Diliman was the most talked about team of the off-season. With big names joining the fold and an intact roster, UP is an early favorite to win it all in Season 81.

Game 1’s result wasn’t a surprise. The re-tooled Fighting Maroons wrecked the Red Warriors, 87-58, in a pretty lopsided affair. Bright Akhuetie, who looks eerily similar to LeBron James, made his debut and flat out dominated the game. He was a man among boys out there. No kidding. Sheesh.

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I feel bad for the guy trying to challenge Bright. This definitely did not end well. (Photo: Maroon Pride https://www.facebook.com/upmaroonpride/)

Though he wasn’t the center of attention, his presence down low definitely affected the game beyond what the stat sheet says.

Juan Gomez de Liano was phenomenal in the first game of his sophomore year (as well as in his second game versus Ateneo de Manila). Often times, brilliant rookies tend to struggle during their second year. From the looks of it, the UPIS standout has been working on his on-court game as much as his off-court swagger (and recruitment skills on social media that might have landed Ricci Rivero and Kobe Paras to Diliman).

The high-flying guard has been racking up the retweets on Twitter for highlights such as this:

And this:

And of course this (that even got featured on BallisLife):

We’re just at the tip of the U.P. iceberg with Akhuetie and Juan GDL but these two guys can already lift a team to the Final Four. No joke. We haven’t even mentioned guys like the Cebuano duo of Paul Desiderio and Jun Manzo or off-season pickups Jaydee Tungcab and UAAP Juniors MVP Will Gozum.

I’ve said this last year, even before the crazy summer the Fighting Maroons had, the boys from Diliman are making the Final Four in Season 81. It’s as if the Maroons became the Golden State Warriors of the UAAP. Everyone just wants to play for them 🤷🏽‍♂️ I wouldn’t be surprised if the Battle of Katipunan will be the UAAP Finals a few months from now.

Ateneo’s my home team, but I will always have a soft spot for U.P. I’ll always want to root for their success because it just makes the league so much fun and better. Not to mention the stories that’ll be written if ever the Fighting Maroons do win it all this season.

This season I’ll be #GoAteneo but also #UPFight! They’re both in Katipunan anyway 🙊

The UAAP is back!

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Beat writers for the NBA often say that the once 10-month long season has now become an all-year-round league. More than just the games, the players, coaches and everything in between are getting more coverage now than they’ve ever gotten before.

Thanks in equal part to social media and the interest from fans, basketball is legitimately becoming a way of life.

Whatever happens on the biggest basketball stage slowly trickles down to all the other leagues in the world. Case in point is the UAAP. Decades before the only people who tuned in to the UAAP were students, faculty and alumni of participating schools. But with household names such as Kiefer Ravena, Alyssa Valdez and even more contemporary heroes in Ricci Rivero and Thirdy Ravena playing in the UAAP, fans outside of the participating institutions have become more invested.

UAAP opening

Season 81-host National University definitely pulled all the strings with NBA MVP Stephen Curry leading the Oath of Sportsmanship. (Photo: https://upd.edu.ph/uaap-season-81-finally-begins/)

The UAAP is definitely back and with a bang! This year’s opening festivities has probably been the grandest its ever been. With SM Group-owned National University hosting Season 81, the Bulldogs made sure to pull out all the surprises. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors led the Oath of Sportsmanship for the athletes. On the entertainment side of things, James Reid and K-Pop idol Minzy dazzled the crowd before the main event rolled out. I can’t remember a UAAP opening that could pass off as an NBA superstar meet-and-greet event/local celebrity concert/K-Pop show. SM really flaunting that money.

But more than the off-court festivities, I was greatly impressed with the show the boys put out on the floor. I’ve missed the familiar faces. Thirdy’s been dunking all over the place again while Juan GDL’s proving the “sophomore slump” still hasn’t gotten to him (at least on the first two games of the season). Rookies such as Dave Ildefonso are making a splash in just their freshman seasons.

The UAAP is stacked but most importantly it’s back!