Sports: UAAP Final Four, Finally Set

One of the top basketball leagues in the Philippines, is moving into the Semi Finals phase or as it is commonly known the UAAP Final Four, and yes the term was adopted from the NCAA in the US just incase you're wondering.

It couldn't have concluded more dramatically, literally the last seconds were the defining moments between the top two seeds, the Eagles were facing off the Tamaraws on their last games in the second round, if the latter wins they'll be tied for the top spot, and since the Eagles won by 4 points over the Tams in the first round of competition, the Tamaraws only had to win by more than 5 points since the quotient rule was being applied.

Things were going the Tamaraw's way as they came out strong by closing the 1st quarter 11 points ahead of their opponents, Smart Gilas teammates Mark Barroca and JR Cawaling providing much of that fire, and though the Eagles answered back in the second quarter, the Tams coming off the Halftime break managed to keep their composure as they held the Eagles to only 10 points in the 3rd quarter, showing off the defensive game that they're well-known for, and leading by as much as 18 points frustration was settling in for the Eagles, as one of their players (Nico Salva) gets thrown out of the game for throwing a closed fist to the mid section of a Tamaraw (Jens Knuttel).

A Real roller coaster ride kind of a match ... so far, but a Basketball game doesn't end at the 3rd quarter, the Eagles ignited a 12 - 0 run, bringing back the game within their reach. It was turning out to be a neck to neck game after all, with now less than a minute to play the game was tied at (72 - 72) and the Eagles had possession, the situation was that if they lose the ball and the Tams get possession what would the Tamaraws do? remember they need to win by 5 points and with the time going against them, it would be wiser to send this into Overtime and finish off the Eagles in the extra five minutes. On the other hand the Eagles can easily foul a Tamaraw which would send them to the charity line and force them to shoot. Apparently the Tamaraws couldn't hold on to the tie with 19 seconds remaining Rabeh Al-Hussaini puts up a two and converts (74 - 72), yet fouls Reil Cervantes on the other end with only 2 seconds left, another chance for the Tamaraws to bring it to overtime and as Al-Hussaini fouls out the chances seem to be on the Tamaraw's side. Cervantes swiftly gets his first shot in, but misses the second. The reigning Champions win by cling on with their claws on a one point lead.

Much of the fire power came for Tamaraws came from Paul Sanga who was 5/11 from beyond the arc and finished with 19 points, the reliable Aldrech Ramos finished off with yet another double-double 16 points and 17 rebounds. more info and stats on www.inboundpass.com


So the Final Four Order is:

Ateneo de Manila - Blue Eagles (Record: 13 - 1)
Far Eastern University - Charging Tamaraws (Record: 11 - 3)
University of the East - Red Warriors (Record: 10 - 4)
University of Santo Tomas - Growling Tigers (Record: 6 - 8)

In the Semi Final Round, the top two seeds have a twice to beat advantage. The Eagles are facing off the Tigers, and obviously it's going to be another "Laban ng Silangan" (Battle of the East) as the Charging Tamaraws go against one of their rivals the Red Warriors, both teams will have the hunger for the title, as the Tams haven't won it during the post Arwind Santos era, and the Warriors despite sweeping both rounds of eliminations of Season 70, gave away the title to the De LaSalle Green Archers. The Archers are actually missing out being part of the Final Four only for the second time since they first joined the league in 1987.

So will the Eagles get their back-to-back title? will the Warriors' fighting spirit prevail? will the killer instinct of the Tigers provide them the title? or will the Tamaraws charge through the competition with a furious stampede? Mark your calendars Sept. 19 and 20 are the dates to watch out for.

Is it better to regret something you did, rather than to regret something you didn't do?

This week I was impressed by Obama's plan to move combat troops out of Iraq within 19 months, a bold move by a President who has got the Economic Recession, Health Care reform and Afghanistan on his hands. Feasible ? I believe yes, but what worries me more are the troops who will remain for training Iraqi forces and for Counter Terrorism operations. This just shows that U.S. still wants to be in control of the situation on the ground, and this will not help Iraq rebuild the country on its own.

Zed, a friend of mine made an interesting point while we were discussing this on Facebook, he said 

" ... i think, U.S. needs the instability for it to still continue to control some (if not all) of Iraq's resources... "

my interpretation was that U.S. needs Iraq to be unstable to have the upper hand. Hence I post an two open question does the U.S. really want Iraq to be successful in rebuilding their own nation? what advantages would an independent Iraq have to the U.S.?

Also this week I was particularly struck by the panel discussion on GPS, actually what really made my ears stand up, were these lines: 

" We should fight these fundamentalists, but with ideas, education, politics -- not with Predators. Those should be reserved for the much smaller band of jihadis, who seek to kill us. Otherwise, we're going to find ourselves at war around the world with a collection of varied groups that have varying goals."

  

and I agree with the "provisional thoughts" of Fareed on this subject, there is a line between the radicals who are taking over the Swat Valley in Pakistan and the terrorists who planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. Though both maybe categorized as fundamentalists, but there is a distinct difference between the two, Islamic Radicals want to have an Islamic Law impossed in their state, much like the Taliban, and on the other hand we have extremists who are waging a Global Jihad, and these like the notorious Al-Qaeda should be the ones we are fighting against. It is critical to understand the difference between the two because you don't go to a fight without knowing who your enemy is. I respect anyones opionion that opposes fundamentalism, but opposing ones beliefs should not be a reason for war. 

The point I am trying to make here is that the Taliban has no intention of killing us (the west and it's allies)  yet we are going to war against them. The war we have on our hands in Pakistan & Afghanistan is producing opposite results, we are going after and killing people, such as Talibans, who had no intention of killing us in the first place. So what are we as the western allies trying to achieve there? are we really eliminating enemies, or are we actually creating them? In my opinion we are not fighting a war against the Taliban, we are starting it.

links:

Fareed Zakaria GPS Podcast

Adventures of Zed

How's the weather ?

Welcome Reader

As my first post I would like to describe why I chose the title and what this blog is all about, so first off the title "My 4 Kilobytes Worth" is derived from the Idiom "My 2 Cents Worth" which is means to state ones opinion,  though some speculate that it orignated from the 16th Century British expression "penny for your thoughts", nowadays it is a way to state your opinion in a humble and polite way, which my intention is with this blog.

Now probably you would be wondering what is with the 4KB replacing the 2 Cents, well I do not want to go too deep in the technology background to this, but I will briefly scratch the surface of it, in the big-ass computer environment called Mainframes, it has actually been successfully handling huge workloads of data since the 1960's,  while interacting only with 4KB of memory of the Processor, Virtual and Auxialliary Memory. So with such an little memory big systems, like we have in banks or telecommunications, are secured that their systems will run efficiently and reliably. So in the world where the Roadrunner ( Beep - Beep ) has 1,099,511,627,776 bytes of memory, it shows how powerful and reliable the 4KB memory scheme still is.

Hence stating my thoughts & opinions in a humble and polite manner yet trying to be powerful with the message, lesson or importance you'll be walking away with. This blog will be a personal one, ranging from topics such as Travel, Food, Technology, to Politics, Human Rights, and other World news, actually blogging on almost anything on the mind of this Nomad's Dog ( that's for another post though). I consider myself a citizen of the world therefore I will always be unbiased on any topics I will be posting, and ofcourse will receive evey comment with "an Open Mind and a Loving Heart". 

Later, Reader.