After more than two months of intense action, the NCAA men's basketball tournament has come down to its final stretch.
As of Thursday, three teams have already booked their Final Four tickets: De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Mapua University, and San Beda University, with the Blazers and the Cardinals already assured of the twice-to-beat bonus.
Only one Final Four spot remains and only two teams remain in contention for the said berth: Lyceum of the Philippines University (9-8) and Emilio Aguinaldo College (8-9).
To visualize, here's the current standings:
How will the Final Four be set? Here are possible scenarios:
- For LPU
One step for the Pirates to directly return to the Final Four is by beating Benilde on Friday. A win will assure them of their 10th win which will separate them from the rest of the lower ranked teams.
An LPU loss will give EAC a chance to tie their standings at 9-9.
- For EAC
The Generals are still in the race for their first Final Four stint in men's basketball.
However, they need LPU to lose against the Blazers. If the Pirates lose, EAC should then beat Jose Rizal University in their match on Friday afternoon.
If LPU loses against Benilde and EAC wins over JRU, both teams will have a 9-9 record which will force a playoff for the fourth spot.
An EAC loss, however, will put the Generals at 8-10 and will automatically send LPU to the Final Four.
- San Beda stays at No. 3
San Beda (10-7) will still play San Sebastian College-Recoletos (5-12) on Saturday. However, the Mendiola crew is already assured of the no. 3 spot.
If it wins against the Golden Stags, the Red Lions will improve to 11-7, meaning it will have a better record against LPU or EAC, whichever team will take the last semis ticket.
If both San Beda and LPU end the elimination round with identical 10-8 cards, the Red Lions will still stay as the third seeded team as it has a higher point differential against LPU.
- Race to No. 1
How will the no. 1 team in the standings be determined?
Right now, both Benilde and Mapua have 14 wins and three losses.
Both teams also have one game remaining with the Blazers going against LPU on Friday and the Cardinals taking on Arellano University on Saturday.
If one team wins and the other one loses, then the squad who will take a victory will get the top spot.
However, if both teams end up at 15-3 or 14-4, then Benilde will take the no. 1 spot due to higher quotient advantage.
For context, the head-to-head result of Benilde and Mapua in the elimination round is at 1-1. However, Benilde has a higher point differential as it defeated the Cardinals, 78-65 in the first round. Mapua, meanwhile, eclipsed the Taft-based squad by just two points, 75-73, in their second round encounter.
—JKC, GMA Integrated News
