Celthan, Ethamargaux, or DIETHAN?

Ina, Kapatid, Anak fangirls, make your voices heard. Vote now... after the jump!

March Madness! Haterade version!

As tribute to Grantland's "The Most Hated College Basketball Players of the Last 30 Years" tournament (written by the Rafeboogs himself), this blog ripped off their brilliant idea, because, I'm not into plagiarizing -- I cited them. Only that I made it better: instead of making this tournament solely about college hoopsters, why not include the bigwigs? You know, the shady people behind the scenes that make college basketball a little bit exciting.



Just like Grantland's version, there are four brackets: the bigwigs, players of the 2010s (2010-present), players of the 2000s (2000-2009), and the Pinoy version of Duke, the team everyone hates, a DLSU-centric bracket. But don't worry people who seethe the Gremlins, some DLSU bigwigs are at the bigwigs bracket, so an all-DLSU final is possible.

Seedings are determined by total overall hate throughout the interwebz, measured through my own biases. This is not to be a scientific survey of hate, and seeds may have been adjusted for meaty matchups, both in the first round or, potentially, in the latter rounds. I present, the bracket:


And now, the first round!

DLSU bracket:

2010s players bracket:

Polls end after a week, then the other half of the bracket gets their spotlight.

Divorce: The time is now?

The Philippines is now the only country in the world, except for Vatican City, not to recognize divorce. Today, the Maltese endorsed in a referendum to approve divorce.

Question: Should the Philippines legalize divorce? Vote after the jump.

2010-11 NBA season: Where QUITNESS happens

So I was going to rank all 30 teams plus some nice previews just like what I did last year, but I got lazy, so I'd just give their projected number of wins! YAY!

Eastern Conference

Cleveland: 17
Charlotte: 22
New Jersey: 23
Detroit: 28
Toronto: 29
Philadelphia: 31
Indiana: 38
Washington: 40
Milwaukee: 41
New York: 44
Chicago: 46
Atlanta: 51
Boston: 53
Orlando: 61
Miami: 69

Western Conference

Minnesota: 19
Sacramento: 26
Golden State: 30
New Orleans: 33
L.A. Clippers: 33
Memphis: 39
Denver: 42
Houston: 50
San Antonio: 50
Oklahoma City: 51
Phoenix: 51
Utah: 52
Portland: 52
Dallas: 54
L.A. Lakers: 62

Racing Stripes: The Dawn of a New Empire

Seriously, it'll get worse once Kiefer Ravena graduates.

The Ateneo Blue Eagles are your three-pe... wait, I can't use that since Pat Riley owns the rights. Oh, hasn't anyone emailed Pat Riley yet? The three-pe... you know what is, is plastered on those championship T-shirts.

So I won't make this a rant. Well, maybe it might. For those who said the refs helped them, FEU choked, or that Emman Monfort is Joe Lipa's long lost son, screw you. It was fate, I tell you.

Saw that trey by Ryan Buenafe? That was fate. He missed more three point shots this year than Shaquille O'Neal missed freethrows his entire career. But he nailed it. Swoosh.

The Tamaraws have no answer. RR Garcia was nowhere. Ramos and Cervantes were missing freethrows. Even Romeo, OK, I won't make a Shakespearean joke.

And this is just the beginning. The MVP-financed teams (well, up to this year when MVP found a boatload of cash he started financing other teams) are doing pretty well. Ateneo with its deep coffers can overachieve as long as either Kiefer Ravena signs up (LOL, sign up. It's like professional basketball), or other teams won't get Taiwanese/Chinese/Hong Konger centers. San Beda just swept the NCAA eliminations like Sunshine Corazon's mother. Even the Sys won't be able to match Ateneo now.

And so, with the impending domination of the evil empire, all we can do is for a team to be like the Boston Red Sox. I sure do hope it's not that team that resides in place that has the same name as the salts of malic acid.

BTW, the results of the UAAP Playoffs poll: Which team will win the UAAP Season 73 men's basketball championship?
(1) FEU Tamaraws: 13
(2) Ateneo Blue Eagles: 11
(3) Adamson Falcons: 1
(4) La Salle Green Archers: 1
Forget about basketball, champions naman kami sa cheerdance woohoo!: 0
Thanks for voting!

Catfight!

So it's the end of our Glee Sing-Off Vote-Off, and before I show the result, which probably doesn't matter anyway since you guys know who's leading when you vote (HAHA), let's watch again the awesomest scene of the second season's premiere.

And no, it's not them singing "Telephone."
Nor even her singing "Listen."
Nor was it Brittany and her doll and the new style of witchcraft.
Nor the awesome dance moves by Finn.
It was this. (See it after the jump)


Thanks to our friendly friends at PinoyExchange for providing me one of the most seminal moments in television.

Ah yes, the results:
Who would win in a singing contest?
Rachel Berry (Lea Michele): 29
Sanshayn (Charice): 39
Manny Santos (Manny Pacquiao): 21
With 89 votes cast, this is the most voted poll on this blog. Ever. Thank you for voting!

In homage to UP Pep... and the Final Four poll.

I had a Twitter flood on the premise of the phrase "UP Pep is so good..." and this had the most retweets.
Seriously, people can't get enough sex.
So, yeah, the Final Four poll, after the jump.

So here's the poll:

Previous poll result: Which team will win the UAAP Cheerdance Competition?
Adamson: 3
Ateneo: 10
La Salle: 4
FEU: 24
NU: 2
UE: 2
UP: 39
UST: 26
Sanshayn-led Cheerios: 2

Photo of the Oblation is under public domain.

Cheerdance: Better than Ateneo-La Salle

When you think of UAAP Cheerdance, you don't immediately think of the UST-UP rivalry.
Instead, you remember this.
(Poll, and result of the previous UAAP poll, after the jump.)

Photo credit c/o Teresa Barrozo at Flickr.

UAAP poll results:
Which team will clinch the twice to beat advantage in the UAAP?
Adamson: 10
Ateneo: 24
La Salle: 10
FEU: 20
NU: 2
UE: 0
UP: 2
UST: 7
Shaq is a has-been: 0

They were playing Bieber and Charice on the hostaged bus

...as if to make their ordeal one of the most inhumane ever, disgraced police officer Rolando Mendoza subjected his hostages to an auditory delight of Justin Bieber and Charice songs. Just kidding. So who should we blame for all of this? Vote after the jump.

2010 Fiesta Conference Finals poll results!

First, congratulations to Alaska for bringing down the establishment, and yay to the salary cap. Siot must've thought, "I wish I was Ryan Gregorio instead!"

Poll results after the jump.
Question: How will the PBA Fiesta Finals end?
Ryan Arana will have a dance number: 8
San Miguel in 6: 4
Alaska in 5: 3
San Miguel in 7: 3
Alaska in 6: 2
No votes: Alaska in 4, Alaska in 7, San Miguel in 5, James Yap will be Finals MVP.

The 2 guys win a free gallon of Alaska Milk! Just look for L.A. Tenorio somewhere in Recto to claim your prize!

The Great Glee Sing-Off Vote-Off!

So finally, Rachel Berry met her equal. With a litigation team rivaling that of Lindsay Lohan, with a political team that brought Barack Obama to power, with an economic team that prevented the Great Recession from hitting Harpo Productions, Rachel Berry must be very afraid. But no, she has her entire glee club friends... wait she doesn't have friends.

The poll after the jump, with pics! And special participation from Floyd Mayweather's worst enemy!

Voting ends on the premiere of the second season, on September 21.

It's final: Charice is not pretty

The people have spoken! The results:
Yes: 21
No, but she is talented: 13
No: 11
Total no: 24

Yes, the people are sane. I thought they've gone mad last May 10, but it's not that bad.

Thank you for exercising your right! On to the next one!

If the Decis10n Tournament was the election...

...Gordon will win not just via a landslide, but via sweep. He scored 100% of the votes. It's like vote by acclamation, without the annoying voice of Boy Nograles.
As for Nograles the Speaker, he failed to win the Davao mayoralty election, but his son made it, joining about 100 Lakas Kampi Comgressmen who are all eager and perky to vote Congresswoman-elect Gloria Arroyo as the incoming Speaker.

Check out the House Watch at the upper right hand corner to see which party has the advantage in the race for the speakership.

Noynoy vs. Gordon: The Decis10n Tournament Finale

Noynoy held off a late Villar surge to clinch their semifinal, while Dick had a relatively easier matchup against Gibo to set up our presidential finale: Dick vs. Noynoy. Winner gets a free PCOS machine.

Mar Roxas walloped Loren Legarda to win the vice presidential finale.
The results:
President:
(1) Noynoy Aquino def. (4) Manny Villar 8-7.
(2) Richars Gordon def. (3) Gilbert Teodoro 10-6.

Vice president:
(2) Mar Roxas def. (4) Loren Legarda 5-2.

On colonial mentality mindedness

I tweeted "You know there is a recession when you see Charice in TOTAL GIRL magazine." (See the cover here.) Then someone replied that Charice is talented. Then, I told the person Charice is not pretty enough to be in Total Girl magazine. Then, the person replied that I have "colonial mentality", then things got out of hand.

You can read the rest of the discussion on my Twitter (it is on the public timeline so everyone can see it), so let's just settle the issue:

Note: Someone voted 52 times for "yes". As such, duplicate votes for "yes" have been removed.

Poll will run until June 12. Every vote cast goes to my Google AdSense account. LOL.

Related post: Note to Charice

Summer Madness! Verbatim Tourney Semis!

It's the final four and all races were tight in the quarterfinals:

Presidential match-ups:
(4) Manny Villar won over (5) Vetellano Acosta 4-3.
(3) Gilberto Teodoro won over (6) Joseph Estrada 5-4.

Vice-presidential match-ups:
(4) Loren Legarda won over (1) Bayani Fernando 5-4.
(2) Mar Roxas won over (3) Jejomar Binay 6-4.


Which leads us to the exciting semifinals in the presidential race:
(1) Noynoy Aquino vs. (4) Manny Villar
(2) Richard Gordon vs. (3) Gilberto Teodoro

And the Finals for the vice presidential race:
(2) Mar Roxas vs. (4) Loren Legarda

Regular season results:
Presidential:
Noynoy Aquino: 11
Richard Gordon: 10
Gilberto Teodoro: 9
Manny Villar: 3
Vetellano Acosta: 2
Joseph Estrada: 1
Others: 0

Vice presidential:
Bayani Fernando: 14
Mar Roxas: 5
Jejomar Binay: 2
Loren Legarda: 1
Others: 0

Polls are up. Voting for both rounds is up to 11:59 p.m., May 8. Championship round of the presidential race will be on Election Week (May 9-15). If a match-up ends in a tie, I will choose who will advance (i.e. I will vote myself.)

March er... Summer Madness! Decis10n-style!

Since this is a sports blog with some politics sprinkled in between, let's have a sort of a game. Let's have a single elimination tournament of the candidates! You haven't seen anything like this since the PBA didn't eliminate teams after the "classification" round!

Here are the mechanics:
For the first two weeks, all candidates will be voted upon by the visitors of this blog. A visitor can only vote once, but they can vote as many candidates as they like.

After the third week, the candidates will be ranked. Two will be eliminated, leaving 8 presidential candidates and 6 vice presidential candidates. If there is a tie, I'll choose randomly who'll be the higher seed.

For the presidential candidates, the match-ups will be 1 vs 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5. Votes will be reset back to zero for all candidates and there will be another round of voting for the next two weeks.

For the vice presidential candidates, the best two candidates are given byes, and the match-ups will be 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5.

After the fifth week, the winning candidate on each match-up advances to the semifinals. The match-ups for both sets of candidates will be highest remaining seed vs. the weakest remaining seed, and the two others. Votes will be reset back to zero for all candidates and there will be another round of voting for the next two weeks.

After the seventh week, the winning candidate on each match-up advances to the final. for the Final round, votes will be reset back to zero for all candidates and there will be another round of voting for the next four weeks. The candidate with the highest vote total in the final round is the winner.

What does this game achieve? Nothing, but you can get a feel on how the candidates will fare in a sports tournament.

Presidential poll:

Vice presidential poll:

Schedule:
February 9: Start of elimination round
February 28: End of elimination round
March 1: Start of quarterfinals
March 14: End of quarterfinals
March 15: Start of semifinals
March 28: End of semifinals
March 29: Start of final
April 26: End of final
May 10: Election

Batch of 2010: Freshie scouting report

Was your team in the wrong end of a 5-game losing streak? Are you too bored seeing your team go from "cheated from the championship" to "crappy we can't even beat NU"? Well, wait no more, here are your top 10 high school players that should be in the wishlists of all collegiate coaches once the season is over. Not all players are graduating (in high school), though. Well, most are.

#10: Glenn Khobuntin (Letran)
Recruited by Aaron Aban, Glenn Khobuntin is the leading rebounder in the NCAA, grabbing 13.7 boards a game. With bridesmaid finishes the past few years, the Squires have a legit chance of winning the title last won by the likes of Jay-R Reyes, PJ Walsham, OJ Cua and former Knight Kojack Melegrito and friends.

#9: Nico Elorde (DLSZ)
Just like their seniors counterparts in the past, Zobel is not anchored on just one guy, but Nico Elorde has emerged as DLSZ's #2 guy, and he even had the privilege of guarding our #1 player in practice for two years already, and they're not even teammates.

#8: Jerome Delgado (San Sebastian)
With Eric Salamat, Ryan Buenafe and Arvie Bringas gone, the Stags have to rely on Jerome Delgado to keep them in the hunt for juniors championship contention. Delgado has emerged as a potent shooter, with 32% three point percentage, 70% free throw percentage, and an overall field goal percentage of 55.4%

#7: Gwayne Capacio (DLSZ)
Gwayne is coach Glen Capacio's son, and it shows in the genes as he has emerged as the leader of that team from Alabang wound up second place in the recently conclude UAAP tourney. If it weren't for him sinking in those insurance baskets, the Junior Archers would've lost Game 2 and the championship right there, but... wait, we'd have to reserve that for our #1 player.

#6: Amer Baser (San Beda)
The vaunted San Beda Red Cubs program is nearing an end of an era: Coach Ato Badolato is in final year, and he wants to go out in style, by leading the Red Cubs to #1 seed, that is if they can beat the Staglets on Monday, and beat the Squires in the playoff. Anchoring the Red Cubs is Amer Baser, far and away the #1 passer in the NCAA with 8.6 dimes per game. Not only Baser is an adept passer, he can score too, scoring 23 points in San Beda's upset against the then 17-0 Squires, and is an able defender, with a league-best 4.3 steals per game.

#5: Terrence Romeo (FEU-FERN)
So the next three names came in here solely because of stat padding, but still, this former Letran Squire scored 83 points in a basketball game. In any level that is no easy feat. Even if it was against a team with a 0-8 record prior to the game and wounded up 0-14 at the end of the season. Heck, Kobe did worse against the Raptors.

#4: Joshua Saret (JRU)
If you thought 83 points vs. a 0-14 team was bad, how about 89 points in a team that went 0-18 at the end, and perhaps no player from the roster would make it to the big leagues when they all grow up? But still, Saret scored 21 points against the #3 team San Sebastian, and they doubled him everytime he touched the ball. Still not an easy feat.

#3: Keith Agovida (JRU)
You gotta blame this guy for starting this point-padding issue, since he started it first last year when he scored 82 points in a game against then debuting Malayan Red Robins who had a 0-5 record prior to the game, and ended up with a 0-12 record. He used up his high school eligibility last year, and will graduate this year, so this guy must get in shape before scouts find him... er, he probably has a choice college now. I heard it's not the school from Kalentong, but he can still change his mind...

#2: Jarelan Tampus (Letran)
He was originally my #1 "pick" and he probably might be the #1 pick when October is over, but with all of the hype from the windy place they call Loyola Heights, I gotta slide him down to #2. But his stats of 26.2 points per game (3rd in NCAA), 4.8 assists (6th) and 2.4 steals (6th) is good enough for #2. All-around inside player with a .563 field goal percentage, but he has to work on shooting free-throws since he has a not-so-respectable 68.5% clip. Last time I heard, Tampus is on his way out of Muralla, but that's what I heard and it's not yet confirmed on what team he'd go to next season.

#1: Kiefer Ravena (Ateneo)
The Ateneo hype machine has again produced a juniors player that will piss off Joshua Webb he'll be in a kicking rampage all across Malate. Kiefer Ravena has emerged as the high school player every wants to get but they can't since he'll stay at the loving arms of MVP. Despite a woeful Game 2 performance scoring only 6 points, and causing the turnover that led to La Salle tying the series, and a scoreless first half in Game 3 (he finished the game with 7 points), Game 1 was nothing short of jaw-dropping: 33 points (which was not his career high), which caused him to be named Finals MVP.

Addendum: Poll results for "Which collegiate team should be the elimination round's #1 team?"

• Ateneo = 43%
• UE = 20%
• San Sebastian = 13%
• Other NCAA team = 8%
• FEU = 7%
• San Beda = 5%
• Other UAAP team = 4%
• NAASCU/CUSA/NCRAA/UCAA team = 0%

Thank you for voting!

Exercise your rights: Final returns

We'd closed voting for the UAAP and NCAA polls for Round 1. Another set of polls will be posted for Round 2 scenarios. Thanks for all those who voted!

After the jump: the results.

Which NCAA team will finish last after the end of the first round of eliminations?

1. AUF = 7 (21%)
2. EAC = 5 (15%)
3. San Beda = 5 (15%)
4. JRU = 4 (12%)
5. Mapua = 4 (12%)
6. UPHSD = 4 (12%)
7. Arellano = 3 (9%)
8. San Sebastian = 2 (6%)
9. Letran = 0 (0%)
10. CSB = 0 (0%)

Total votes: 34

Which team will finish first after the first round of eliminations in the UAAP?

1. Ateneo = 53 (51%)
2. UST = 14 (14%)
3. La Salle = 10 (10%)
4. FEU = 9 (9%)
5. UE = 9 (9%)
6. NU = 4 (4%)
7. Adamson = 2 (2%)
8. UP = 2 (2%)

Total votes: 103