It is not the usual kind of elation one gets after a hard-earned victory. With Season 69 now roughly one-third done Far Eastern University seems to be in quite a pickle. Coach Bert Flores and his boys are groping for form, searching for answers and are generally looking very much like deer (or Tamaraws) in the headlights. That last description is proving quite apt, as the defending champions are now in a most unfamiliar position, the bottom of the UAAP standings, and do not seem to know how to get over their present woes. I'll bet the team management has been getting even worse hangovers than I have these past weeks, which is really saying something.

FEU has not had a start this bad in the last 10 or 12 years. It took them five games to get their first win. This is obviously not the team that practically ran roughshod over the league the last couple of years, winning two of the last three championships. The departure of two-time UAAP MVP Arwind Santos and bigman Mark Isip have taken a seemingly insurmountable toll. Santos and Isip were double-double producers who controlled the glass and anchored the once-feared FEU defense. Their departure deprived the Tamaraws of about half of their scoring and rebounding from the last two seasons. These numbers are nearly irreplaceable, especially on a team that no longer has the firepower of old.

Second-year guard Jonas Villanueva has been trying mightily to carry this team on his back, with a lot of help from hotshot fourth-year forward Jeff Chan. But the Villanueva-Chan combine has found the going to be a totally different proposition this year. Without the insurance provided by the rebounding of Santos and Isip on the offensive glass, and their shotblocking on defense, Villanueva and Chan have gotten less open looks while also taking less chances on their fullcourt press. These two have gotten less confident gambling on defense and have been taking more shots than they would like on offense. By the time the fourth period rolls around they are obviously dead tired. Help must come from the other remaining veterans but they have not been consistent.

Among the remaining veterans, much was expected from Jon Adolfo, RB Mangahas and Francis Barcellano. Mangahas and Barcellano were of critical importance since they were the only veteran frontliners left after Santos and Isip left. Both have heft and height to spare but are nowehere near the talents of the previous two. At the very least they were expected to secure the glass and guard the lane. Mangahas only saw action starting with the Ateneo game, while Barcellano has been woefully inconsistent. Adolfo's shot comes and goes, and when he isn't scoring he isn't helping much with his matador defense and unwillingness to swoop t the glass. Coach Bert Flores's retooled perimeter-oriented game requires his bigmen to simply tend the glass, the famed FEU halfcourt motion game that featured good high-low action now a mere memory.

There is reason to be hopeful for the future though, as two rookies seem to be doing well for the Tamaraws, center JR Gerilla and swingman Marnel Barachael. Gerilla in particular has been a revelation as a post player, scooping up rebounds, blocking shots, getting putbacks and generally being very effective at the 5 and 4 slots. Those who followed the offseason hardcore leagues are surprised at Gerilla's sudden emergence given that his fellow hardcore bigmen Billy Afable and Jun Vinluan got more minutes and were in games during critical situations more than he was. Afable's game has been on and off, while Vinluan simply hasn't gotten any significant minutes. Barachael seems to be developing into a third offensive option behind Villanueva and Chan, with his perimeter shooting, slashing and on-ball defense.

And therein lies perhaps another reason for the current moribund state of the Tamaraws: There were no big name recruits for this season. Yes, there are a number of skilled athletes on their lineup, but there is no legitimate emergent superstar there unlike in seasons past. Arwind Santos, Dennis Miranda, Mark Isip, RJ Rizada, Jeff Chan and Jonas Villanueva were all highly regarded recruits of recent years, coming on the heels of the generation of Christian Nicdao, Edwin Bacani, Mico Roldan, Rysal Castro, Leo Avenido and Gerard Jones. This year's recruits are virtual unknowns except to the hardcore hoops junkies, and they will likely take another season or two to become consistent enough to be considered stars.

At the rate they're going the Tamaraws will need a minor miracle to put together a good run. At 1-4, the safest thing would be to sweep their next eight games just to have a more or less trouble-free entry into the Final 4. Once there they will be a totally different team for sure, and no other UAAP team would want to test the mettle of the defending champions in a Final 4 matchup. They might be able to afford dropping one more game, if and only if other Final 4 contenders have a slump of sorts, which would be unlikely. If they drop another two games they will have a .500 record at most to end the season. With that kind of a record they'd need a major league meltdown from at least four contenders to have even a chance at a Final 4 berth.

The best the Tamaraws can do now is hunker down and take it one game at a time. They got off on the right foot by beating UP in their last assignment. Their losses to UST and Ateneo were very close and could have gone either way; they could just as easily be at 3-2 at the very least instead of 1-4. This would seem to indicate that they have the talent to still compete at a high level in the league, staying toe to toe with contenders. But they must find a way to wrap up the win. Their loss to National University should have been their wakeup call. As much as I like Manny Dandan, his Bulldogs were simply overachieving in their game against the Tamaraws. It seems the breaks simply aren't going FEU's way.

Against UP over the weekend the Tamaraws seem to have finally hit some sort of stride. It wasn't a convincing win to be sure but it was still a win. Jonas Villanueva had a tournament-high 28 points while Jeff Chan had 20. It has been a long while since two Tamaraws scored at least 20 points in a winning game. This was a shot in the arm for Coach Bert Flores and his boys, but they have quite a long way to go.

Can FEU still recover from their present conundrum? Stay tuned.