Everybody from sportswriters to barbers to bookies to fantasy league addicts to the team fans always says it: everything is different come the playoffs. Teams, players and coaches can always prepare for the long haul during the regular season. One loss here and there is not as bad as it seems. In the playoffs however one loss can mean the disappointing end of a team’s season. This is quite literally where we separate the men from the boys.

For Season 73 the Final 4 matches are rather familiar for UAAP fans. Reigning champion Ateneo De Manila will face Adamson University. Top seed Far Eastern University will square off versus season host De La Salle.

This is the second time that Coach Leo Austria has guided the Soaring Falcons to meet the Blue Eagles in the Final 4; the first time around was in the 2006 season, when big man Ken Bono was also named the season’s most valuable player. Bono had a heck of a game back then and very nearly forced a knockout match against the heavily favored Blue Eagles of JC Intal. “We just have to be ready, and we will be ready, whoever we face,” said Austria after their last elimination round game against La Salle. That game saw the Falcons take the Number 3 spot over La Salle running away. At that time Ateneo and FEU had yet to settle the Number 1 and Number 2 spots.

Ateneo Coach Norman Black is now focusing on the Final 4, after his boys were unable to finish off FEU in the last game of the eliminations. They wanted to take the Number 1 spot in the Final 4 to set up a match against their archrival La Salle. Breaks of the game however simply did not go the way of the Blue Eagles in the last two and a half minutes of that game. They had a six-point lead that they blew thanks to some bad decisions, non-calls and a breakdown in defensive focus. Ateneo is looking for its first ever UAAP grand slam in the senior division and that seems to be getting harder and harder as the tournament draws to its conclusion. “They have to focus beyond the bad officiating and just close out strong. That is the trademark of a champion,” said one former head coach from a smaller league.

Ateneo remains undefeated against Adamson in the UAAP, a streak that started way back in the Ramos Administration in 1997, including that 2006 Final 4 encounter. Do not let that historical milestone fool you though: Ateneo has never found it easy getting past Adamson. Ateneo-Adamson games of the last couple of years always get decided only in the last few minutes of the fourth period. Quite a number have been decided by two points or less. This season has been no exception.

Match-ups will be keys to this Final 4 battle: Adamson might have the best true pointguards in the league in 5-foot-7 Lester Alvarez and 5-foot-7 Jeric Canada. Alvarez in particular is having a renaissance of sorts and is playing the best ball of his college career. He has come back from an ACL injury and is both the head and the heart of the Falcons. Canada alternates and plays alongside him to form the fastest and most talented backcourt outside of FEU. These two will be double handfuls for the Ateneo guards. To his credit though, 5-foot-6 dynamo Eman Monfort has not only held his own, but has been the biggest difference against the Falcons this season with his headiness and ability to hit the long ball.

If Alvarez is the head and heart, 6-foot swingman Alex Nuyles is the turbo engine driving the Falcons. His freakish athletic prowess has no match on the Ateneo side. That is why Black has often resorted to putting 6-foot-1 Kirk Long on Nuyles. Long is the only Ateneo player with the strength, quickness and tenacity to keep Nuyles from exploding on offense. Nuyles also has to work on defense against Long since the American can score especially when left open.

Up front it will get mighty interesting: 6-foot-2 Ryan Buenafe, 6-foot-3 Nico Salva, 6-foot-6 Justin Chua, 6-foot-5 Frank Golla, 6-foot-4 Arthur De La Cruz and 6-foot-4 Jumbo Escueta will be sorely tested by the slightly taller Adamson frontline. 6-foot-4 Eric Camson, 6-foot-6 African import Austin Manyara, 6-foot-6 Michael Galinato, 6-foot-3 Jan Colina and 6-foot-3 play-alike forwards Janus Lozada and Roy Cabrera. Whoever controls the boards and establishes an inside game will have the advantage.

One X factor for Ateneo is the emergence of 5-foot-10 Eric Salamat as their new superstar. Salamat however has to play smarter and not force his driving game against the tall timber of Adamson. If Salamat can get this done he can not only find his own points but also facilitate the offense better as a passer and a decoy.

For FEU this could be their last and best chance to bring the UAAP Crown back to Morayta. Those Arwind Santos title teams seem such a distant memory, and the FEU administration and student body are itching to return to UAAP glory. They have the tallest, deepest and arguably most talented roster in Season 73. As such they have little to no excuse not to win it all this time. 5-foot-9 Season 73 MVP Ryan Roose Garcia and 5-foot-8 Rookie of the Year Terrence Romeo form the best backcourt in the UAAP. They are the starters on offense and the first line anchors on defense.

Fighting against a La Salle side that is also guard heavy should prove to be interesting though. La Salle after all does seem to have the number of these Tamaraws. FEU needed two overtimes to beat the Green Archers by only four points in Round 1. La Salle then did the improbable, pressing and transitioning until the final buzzer as they shocked and awed FEU by 14 points in Round 2. 5-foot-7 Simon Atkins, 5-foot-9 Almond Vosotros and 5-foot-7 Joel Tolentino have interchanged at the 1 and 2 spots and have generated a mess of turnovers with their swarming press.

Up front its looks like a clear mismatch: 6-foot-6 Aldrech Ramos is second in the league in rebounds and blocks, 6-foot-5 Reil Cervantes is a beast who can maneuver from the high post and low post. They have 6-foot-3 yeoman Anthony Bringas, 6-foot-4 utility man Pipo Nuondou, and 6-foot-3 hotshots JR Cawaling and Paul Sanga combining for the best balanced inside-outside frontline in the UAAP. And yet La Salle leads the league in total rebounds with its hardnosed approach to gang rebounding and tenacity on tapping loose balls out of the air.

La Salle has surprised a lot of teams including FEU with their discipline, patience and resiliency. If this holds true in this Final 4 match then that dream Ateneo-La Salle Finale could still become a reality. Coach Dindo Pumaren has run a very clockwork offense predicated on the basic 4-high 1-low weave, and when that bogs down they still go to the motion offense and modified triangle with Atkins looking to slide over the perimeter and catch a quick kick-out from either 6-foot-4 Maui Villanueva, 6-foot-6 Yutien Andrada or 6-foot-2 swingman Joshua Webb. Atkins has made a living with his quick-trigger jumpshot this season.

All of that talk about another dream Finale between the most storied college rivals in contemporary Philippine basketball remains a pipe dream. Ateneo and FEU should move on after one game in their respective Final 4 matches. Whoever takes Game 1 of the Finals will be crowned champion for Season 73.