UAAP Final Four

The UAAP Final Four most often refers to the playoffs of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball tournament.

The term "final four" came from National Collegiate Athletic Association of the United States' men's Division I basketball tournament which is colloquially called as the "final four".

History

The Final Four tournament was instituted in the 1993-94 season in which the four teams (out of eight) with the best records qualify for the postseason tournament. Previously the postseason was a championship series among the top two teams, with the #1 seeded team holding the twice to beat advantage, in which they have to win only once to clinch the championship, while the #2 team has to win twice.

The tournament would be conducted in two stages:
*The semifinals retained the old format, although both #1 and #2 teams now possess the twice to beat advantage, while the #3 and #4 has to win twice.
*The finals is a best of three series.

However, the University of Santo Tomas swept the 1993 elimination round, and following then existing rules, the Glowing Goldies won the championship outright. After that season, the UAAP revised the rule, in which the team that swept the finals will advance to the best-of-3 finals immediately, while the #2 team has the twice to beat advantage in the semifinals where it waits for the winner of the game between the #3 and #4 team. [ [http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/sports/view_article.php?article_id=88475 UE completes 14-0, but barely] by Jasmine Payo, Philippine Daily Inquirer. Published 09/14/2007, accessed 1/1/2007.]

With no team sweeping the elimination round in the 1994-95 season, the format was first used. However, on the 2007 season, the UE swept the eliminations, causing the sweep clause to be used; with two tie-breaker games, the unavailability of the Araneta Coliseum, and the semifinals lasting two games, 21 days have past since UE's last elimination round game. The rust accumulated caused them to lose the championship series 2–0 against La Salle (their last elimination round opponent). As a result, the Policy Board formulated the "bonus rule" in which the team that sweeps the elimination round will still qualify for the Finals outright but will only need to win twice; the other finalist needs to win thrice. Thus, giving the sweeper a 1-0 lead in a virtual best-of-five. [ [http://sports.inquirer.net/inquirersports/inquirersports/view/20080628-145227/Additional-incentive-for-UAAP-sweep Additional incentive for UAAP sweep] by Jasmine Payo, Philippine Daily Inquirer. Published 6/28/2008, accessed 6/28/2008.]

For the men's tournament, ties among the semifinalists are broken by an extra game, irrespective of the seedings. Ergo, in a tie for the 2nd seed, the game that will be used to break the tie serves as a "de facto" game one of a best-of-three series. If two teams are tied for the fourth seed, the game that will be used to break the tie serves as a knockout game between the two. If three or more teams are tied, usually the team with the the best points difference gets a bye to the final tiebreaker game against the winner/s of the teams with the lower points difference.

In juniors' and women's tournaments, only ties for second and fourth are broken by basis of an extra game. Ties for first and third are broken by the points difference of the tied teams.

Format

*If no team sweeps the elimination round:
**Seeds #1 and #2 teams possess the twice to beat advantage
**Team #1 meets #4 while #2 meets #3 in the semifinals.
**The semifinal winners advance to the Finals.
**The team that wins 2 games in the Finals wins the championship.
*If a team sweeps the elimination round:
**Seed #1 advance to the Finals.
**Seed #2 advance to the semifinals with the twice to beat advantage.
**Teams #3 and #4 face off to meet #2 in the semifinals in a one-game playoff.
**In the finals, the #1 seed only has to win twice, while the other opponent has to win thrice.
*In case of two teams being tied, an extra game will be played to determine which seed they will possess.
*In case of three or more teams being tied, the team with the best head-to-head record usually possesses the best seeding, while the other teams will play an extra game to determine the second-best seeding,

Results

For the semifinal columns, the #1 vs. #4 matchup is given first.

Win-loss statistics

emifinals and knockout games

col-end

eries statistics

emifinals

Finals

Finals statistics

*Most lopsided game: La Salle 72-47 FEU, 1998 Game 1 (25 points)
*Closest game: Several games, all one-point leads:
**UST 77-76 La Salle, 1994 Game 3
**FEU 65-64 La Salle, 1997 Game 2 (championship clincher)
**Ateneo 73-72 UST, 2006 Game 1
*Finals appearances: La Salle, 12
*Consecutive finals appearances: La Salle, 9 (1994-2002)
*Championships: UST (1993-96, 2006) and La Salle (1998-2001, 2007), 5 (including UST's 1993 sweep)
*Consecutive championships: UST (1993-96) and La Salle (1998-2001), 4
*As of 2008, the winner of Game 1 won the championship 10 times out of 15.

emifinals

*Most lopsided game: La Salle 111-85 NU, 2001 (26 points)
*Closest game: Several games, all one-point leads.
*Semifinal appearances: La Salle, 14 (1994-2005, 2007-08; qualified in all seasons they've participated)
*Consecutive semifinal appearances: La Salle, 12 (1994-2005)

eeds

In the 15 tournaments the Final Four format has been applied, the higher seed has beaten the lower seeds in the semifinals due to their twice to beat advantage, for the most part:
# The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed all 15 times (100%).
#*The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed 3 times on the second game (23%)
# The #2 seed has beaten the #3 seed 9 times (60%).
#* The #2 seed has beaten the #3 seed 6 times on the second game (43%).
#**Out of those 6 times the #2 seed was beaten, the #2 seed was UE thrice.
# The #3 seed has beaten the #4 times once
#* With UE sweeping the elimination round, there were two semifinal rounds for 2007.
#The #1 seed skipped the semifinals once (7%; in 2007, when UE swept the elimination round)A victory of the #3 seed in a series is considered a big upset considering that the #3 seed has to win twice, not to mention the perceived superiority of the #2 seed when compared to the #3 seed.

In the finals, the advantage of the #1 seed isn't as pronounced since the competing teams have to win the same number of games:
# The #1 seed has beaten the #2 seed 6 times (43%)
# The #1 seed has beaten the #3 seed 3 times (21%)
# The #2 seed has beaten the #1 seed 2 times (14%)
# The #3 seed has beaten the #1 seed 3 times (21%)
# The #1 seed has won the championship 9 times (64%)

ee also

*NCAA Final Four (Philippines)

References