Racing Stripes: The path ahead for the Tigers

(Note: "Racing Stripes" is this space's UAAP column designed to have a slant, but not necessarily bias, towards that school in España. --Howard the Duck)

So first I gotta explain why the hell I chose "Racing Stripes". The phrase "racing stripes" came from American racing cars back in the day -- before the nasty ads on the cars, they were colored according to their countries. Only Ferrari maintains the fiery Italian red, and former team Jaguar had the British Racing Green. American cars usually had different colors but they were distinctive with one or two stripes right in the middle of the car.

Then Hayden Panetierre had that film where she's a jockey, riding a zebra. Since I'm a Hayden fanboy, I lifted that film's name -- "Racing Stripes" well since Tigers have stripes too.

Ever played GTA? Fast cars had a stripe on top. Striped cars = fast. And that's how coach Pido wants for the 2009 Tigers team: really fast up-tempo play. At least that's what he said on FHM.

So first here's are lineup for Season 72, from our friends at Inboundpass.com:
ABABOU, Dylan - SF/PF
AFUANG, Carmelo - PF/C
AYTONA, Eduard - PG
BAUTISTA, Clark - SG/PG
CAM, Marco - SF/PF
CAMUS, Chris - PF/C
FELIX, Andrew - PG
FORTUNA, Jeric - PG
GREEN, Darrel - PF/C
HADI, Rushdy - SG/SF
MALIKSI, Allen - PG/SG
MARIANO, Aljon - SF/PF
MARQUEZ, AC - SG/SF
MIRZA, Khasim - SF
TENG, Jeric - SG
UNGRIA, Aljohn - SG

So wait, is this Andrew Felix guy related to Andrei "Drei Ball" Felix of NCAA coverage, 103.5 Max FM and MYX "fame"?

And Darrel Green is the former Letran Squire who won Rookie of the Year and Mythical Five honors in 2005, disappeared thereafter, and never returned to Intramuros. Was it due to bad academics? Did he not know who Mark Twain is? Note that this guy is big -- not Sam Ekwe big, but African-American big nonetheless.

And yes, my boy Jeric Fortuna. We sure do need ballhandlers, and we snagged one from Alabang. Because that kid from Greenhills went to Taft. Hah.

This might be former RP youth mainstay Dylan Ababou's last year playing for USTe. The team must give him a proper send-off befitting a senior. They screwed up last year on Jervy so they better make it right this time. But what do Tigers fans really expect from the team? After barely missing the Final Four last year, are we on the beginning stages of a rebuilding mode? Do FEU, Ateneo, La Salle, UE and Adamson have better chances (in that order) in cracking the top four slots?

Is all well in España?

(More on the lineup on Wednesday. Stay tuned.)