And then there were four

Four teams. Four stories. And no one cares. Well, someone else cares, the hardcore hoops fanatics, or those who want to feel the thrill of college basketball in December. It's the Philippine Collegiate Championship, and the winner wins a million pesos, and a trip to Serbia to see the greatness that is Darko Milicic. Awesome!

The PCC is so awesome, only one semifinal game will be live, and the final will be shown delayed on free TV. Hey, at least on VHF Channel 9, unlike the UAAP and NCAA that are languishing in UHF Studio 23. Okay, not exactly languishing but our old TV has only buttons up to channel 13. What's up with that?

The four teams had known each other before Adamson ripped off the real blue bird, before UE ripped off the original American Indians, before PCU started canning sardines, and before CSB became a school of choice of Lucky Manzano. Ateneo, La Salle, Letran and San Beda are old foes who forgot they were old foes and are now not rekindling their old rivalry. Well, at least Bedans would still insist to this day that their one true rival are the Blue Eagles of Katipunan, and Lasallians are just clueless on how they "ended up" in the UAAP.

The past games of the four teams were of lore. Cars wrecked, winshields smashed, chairs at the Rizal Memorial ripped apart, ingenious cheers invented (excluding Lasallians) in the heat of the battle, and of the old Rizal Memorial. And it doesn't matter which team won on the court; what matters is which group of supporters kicked the sorry arses of the other team.

Something that may never happen again. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, it depends on the person, but the battles won in the past, although they may not resonate to the current wars being waged, it will still live at the hearts, and at the scars, of the warriors that fought in those hallowed grounds.

The PCC. Where we try to take it seriously, happens.