It was supposed to have a fairy-tale ending.
But the fairy godmother fell asleep and the spell was automatically broken. And when she did wake up, she cast the spell again but mistakenly on a different team.
For the third time since the Final Four format was introduced in the UAAP, the University of the East Red Warriors failed yet again to make it to the finals despite having the twice-to-beat advantage.
It is becoming a habit and it is not a very good one. They even anoint champions. Every time they have the twice-to-beat, they lose it and their final four foes always end up winning the crown.
They have played kingmaker to the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers in 1994, the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles in 2002, and the Tigers again this year.
It’s like a curse or something.
In a season shaken up by the absence of a perennial powerhouse, the race to the finals took a different route and became a free-for-all.
UE, coming off a spectacular summer with a three-league sweep of all the pre-season tournaments, the Home and Away Invitational League, the Micaba and the Fr. Martin's Cup-Nike Summer League, started the season which they are hosting with a bang.
The greatest coaches and players the school has produced were in attendance when they trounced the Adamson University Falcons on opening day to further boost their invincibility factor.
But invincible they were not. After posting their second victory they fall victim to the age-old enemy--complacency. UST caught them sleeping on the job and pulled a fast one that sent them back to earth.
Freaked out after the loss they almost let the next game slip away. A brilliant endgame by Bonbon Custodio saved it for them. And when they are freaked out, that's when they usually start to falter. The sweep-seeking Eagles were just too much for the Warriors, as always.
They closed out the first round of eliminations with a win over the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons then romped off to four straight, exacting revenge on UST, repeating over the Far Eastern University Tamaraws and the National University Bulldogs.
Coach Dindo Pumaren after the UST game even said, "This is the UE basketball that I wanted to see."
Just when you thought they would go all the way to the number one spot, they stop. The first back-to-back losses came when the season is winding down. The Warriors failed to repeat against the Falcons and the Maroons. They even gave UP a graceful exit by losing to them.
But they did bounce back with a big win by escaping past the Eagles to end the eliminations. In what was supposed to be a preview of the championship, they played their brand of basketball, relaxed, let the other team catch up then recovered just in time.
The thing about winning their last elimination game is everything tend to stop there. The Warriors has never since 1994 gotten past the final four. Beyond that is still a mystery to them.
Then the biggest turnaround that shocked the whole UE community, the Warriors with the twice-to-beat incentive again bowed out of the season by losing twice in a row to UST in the final four.
Game one was a breeze an ordinary UE fan would only remember they lost because it was what the score board told them.
Game two on the other hand was with a lot of drama that started even before the opening tip-off.
In keeping with the lesson the season is trying to convey, that there is no price too steep to pay for discipline, UE did what the UAAP has done to the De La Salle University.
All-important big game notwithstanding, school officials suspended their best performing Warrior of the season for "disciplinary measures based on infraction on certain team rules." No further explanation given.
They probably won’t admit it but it shook the whole team and put them in disarray even if they knew about it hours before the game. They were groping for form the entire game.
In fairness to the Warriors, they didn't just roll over and die. They did fight to the very end. They all tried very hard to fill up the void. They played as one team, everybody stepped up and this is probably the best team game ever played by the Warriors the whole season.
It was just that the other team played better and with more luck.
Coach Dindo missed his three-year target but this 69th season is truly a memorable one.
To the Warriors of this season: Marcy Arellano, Toto Bandaying, Mark Borboran, Lawrence Briones, Jorel Canizares, Bonbon, Elmer Espiritu, Kelvin Gregorio, Roberts Labagala, Rudy Lingganay, Pari Llagas, James Martinez, Raffy Reyes and Hans Thiele; you all tried your best, it still was a good run.
Heartbroken by the UAAP debacle, the Red Warriors bounced back to win the Collegiate Champions League that featured the top 16 varsity teams of the country.
It was one reason to celebrate but the last tournament of the year validated what was being said about them for years.
The Recto-based squad lost to the comebacking DLSU Green Archers in the semi-finals of the FilOil-Flying V Homegrown Cup then threw away another opportunity for self-redemption by losing to the Tamaraws of FEU in the battle for third place.
They can't finish what they started, they always lose steam midway, they don't have the finishing kick, and the most insulting of them all, that they don’t have enough heart to win. That's how the entire basketball world describes the Red Warriors.
Overall, it wasn't a disappointing year. Though they missed out again on the biggest prize which is the UAAP championship, at least they have four other titles they all worked so hard to earn and which they all have to defend come next year.
One respected champion coach called them just minor league champs to challenge them to do better than the last time, they didn't rise up to the challenge. Instead they repeated an old mistake. And that mistake happens to be a repeat of a very old mistake. Oops.
