College basketball season is here again, and it’s this time of year when anything and everything about the sport is examined, analyzed, dissected, and rated for the utter consumption of the partisan public. Starting this column, let’s try to scan the UAAP landscape and determine the best players in the league according to positions.

However, my method won’t be relying much on game statistics and other stuff that, frankly, tries to limit and pigeonhole players into a “preordained” set of functions and roles. Hold your horses.

The beauty of basketball is its flow and spontaneity. Players can move around anywhere and everywhere, and offense becomes defense and back sometimes in a matter of seconds. It’s not like in baseball, where you know who the pitcher, catcher, infielders, and outfielders are simply by looking at where they stand in the field.

Let’s begin with the guard positions. For practical purposes, the guards are your best ballhandlers and quickest players. They are also the first players back out on defense, which means they are responsible for stopping the opponent’s fastbreak attacks. Other than that, they’re just as indistinguishable from the rest of their teammates.

Guards can shoot from outside, slash through the middle, post up, feed the shooter, rebound in traffic, break up the passing lanes, block shots in the open court, and commit unforgettable bonehead plays like Dallas’s Derek Harper dribbling the clock away in a tied playoff game in the 1984 series against Los Angeles.

Instead, I will rate guards according to certain qualities I look for in the position, and these are the following:
1. playmaking
2. scoring
3. defense
4. court smarts

THE BEST PLAYMAKING GUARDS

Playmaking guards are those who take great satisfaction in executing play patterns and feeding teammates in scoring positions. There are those who thrive in halfcourt sets, while others are at their best running at full speed with wingmen at either flank slightly ahead. They know how to take care of their team’s possessions by keeping turnovers to a minimum.

In the UAAP, the following are the best I’ve seen coming into Season 71:
1. Japs Cuan, UST
2. Jonathan Jahnke, NU
3. Yuri Escueta, ADMU
4. Mark Barroca, FEU

Special mention to rookie LA Revilla of the Green Archers for his surprising preseason performance fresh out of the Badolato system in San Beda High, Jai Reyes of the Blue Eagles for diversifying his guard play from the time he was a strictly shoot-first, ask-later gunner under Eaglets coach Jamike Jarin, and to sophomore Jerick Canada of Adamson, who is poised to blossom under returning head coach Leo Austria.

THE BEST SCORING GUARDS

Not much to explain here. Scoring guards are often their respective teams’ best shooters. For me, though, what distinguishes a great scoring guard from the merely good ones is their ability to step up and find a way to put the ball through the hoop when the play gets broken. To become that, he must be equally skilled as a spot-up shooter and as a creator off the dribble.

Which brings me to the thing I also look for in a scoring guard: the ability to take it strong to the hoop. Given a choice between a strictly jumpshooting guard and a Marvin Cruz-type of slasher, I’d pick the latter because of the constant pressure he puts on the defense.

The best I’ve seen are: 1) JV Casio, DLSU; 2) Chris Tiu, ADMU; 3) JR Cawaling, FEU; 4) Khazim Mirza, UST. Special mention to Eric Salamat of Ateneo, Bader Malabes of DLSU, Martin Reyes of UP, and the pair of Marcy Arellano and James Martinez of UE.

THE BEST DEFENSIVE GUARDS

The best defensive guards always keep pressure on a passer or dribbler in order to force them off their desired path of attack. On man-to-man coverage, they are often tasked to shut down the other team’s scoring threats, sometimes defending forwards and even centers to exploit their quickness and anticipation. In transition, they hardly get caught out of position in defensive coverage—the really outstanding open-court defenders of the recent past like La Salle’s Cholo Villanueva and FEU’s Denok Miranda have the rare ability to buy time and space to force the primary break attack into a low-percentage shot even with the numbers advantage. In essence, the best defensive guards are proud of their lockdown capabilities. That is their calling card, and opposing teams are often forced to draw up special game plans on offense to account for their potential mayhem.

The best in Season 71 are: 1) Jonathan Jahnke, NU; 2) Paul Lee, UE; 3) Paul Gonzalgo, Adamson; 4) Yuri Escueta, ADMU. Special mention to the pair of Simon Atkins and rookie Hyram Bagatsing of DLSU, Kirk Long of ADMU, and Mark Barroca of FEU.

THE SMARTEST GUARDS

Guards with court smarts understand fully the team’s playing philosophy inside and out. Every ounce of their strength and energy is expended to execute that philosophy. Without naming names, I have seen outstanding athletic specimens playing guard who have the tendency to break out of their system, thereby creating confusion over the team’s overall offensive and defensive goals. The smartest guards grasp the notion that the team cannot win if its individual members are pulling against each other. More often than not, the smart ones are the veteran types who have this ability to steer teammates into their places and lead them either with words or deeds.

The smartest this coming UAAP season are: 1) JV Casio, DLSU; 2) Chris Tiu, ADMU; 3) Japs Cuan, UST; 4) Jonathan Jahnke, NU/Jai Reyes, ADMU.