Coach Leo Austria must really know what buttons to press to make the Adamson Falcons click. When the Soaring Falcons first made the Final 4 in 2006 he was at the helm. He even made an MVP out of a then nearly-300 pound Ken Bono. He played to Bono’s strengths and let gunner Patrick Cabahug be the sidekick. Austria has never been known to stick to too much formula. He works with what he has, and what he had then was a bunch of guys who loved to shoot but weren’t too sold on the defensive end. So he worked out a system to give them their shots while still keeping a modicum of defense.

Last season Adamson returned to the Final 4. They met the reigning champions, Ateneo De Manila. Ateneo walloped them. It was an unexpected turn of events. Adamson had given the Blue Eagles all they could handle in the elimination rounds and both teams seemed evenly matched headed into those semifinals. It turned out Coach Norman Black had a few rabbits in his hat that he didn’t pull out until then. Just when everyone played playoff basketball in grind-out fashion, Ateneo turned on its jets and ran all the way to their grand slam.

They would meet again, this time for a championship, in the Philippine Collegiate Champions League. Adamson would seize Game 1 and put Ateneo on the ropes. Ateneo promptly turned things around and won their second straight PCCL title in three games. Ironically Adamson’s stars would bolster the Ateneo roster to represent the Philippines to the International Champions tournament in Hong Kong a few weeks later. “Ateneo will always be your benchmark because they are the champions, and that is what we want to be, champions,” Austria said in one interview during the PCCL.

Going into Season 74, Adamson returns all of its starters as well as many of its core players. 5-foot-7 jets Lester Alvarez and Jeric Canada will once again alternate at pointguard. 6-foot-1 Alex Nuyles, he of the mad hops, returns as the starting off-guard. 6-foot-3 forward Jan Colina is making good on a personal promise to finish his studies as a scholar-athlete. 6-foot-4 power forward Eric Camson is now a year older and better. 6-foot-6 African import Austin Manyara is finally playing with some sense of control. 6-foot-3 play-alike forwards Janus Lozada and Roy Cabrera are also back, as is 6-foot-4 utility forward Rodney Brondial. That’s a core that any coach could work with, and for a good one like Austria this should be good enough to return to the Final 4, and with a bit of match-up luck even the Finals.

Alvarez and Canada will be the key players for Adamson. Both pointguards can either alternate or play alongside each other. No other UAAP pointguard can match their combination of blazing sprinting speed, ability to turn on a dime, break down defenses and run both the offense and the defense. If at least one of them has a Mythical 5 season the Falcons will surely make the Finals.

Too bad the same cannot be said of the Baby Falcons in the high school division. Adamson last had a contending team when Mark Juruena was the junior division MVP. Even in a relatively watered down field this season, the Baby Falcons will need extra effort just to make the Final 4.