Maroons emerge No. 1 in Big Dance ranking

MANILA, Philippines -- University of the Philippines edged UAAP defending champion De La Salle University as the No. 1 collegiate team in the nation as the first The Big Dance ranking completed by a selection committee of the Pinoyliga was released on Wednesday, May 29.

The initial ranking was based on the unbeaten record of the Maroons in both the Pinoyliga Collegiate Cup, where they sport a clean 7-0 record, and the Filoil Ecooil Preseason Cup where they are 4-0 that included a win against the Taft-based team 89-77 last May 11.

La Salle, which recently captured the PBA’s D-League championship, is also unbeaten in the Pinoyliga Cup with a 7-0 slate but that setback to UP dropped the team from Taft Avenue to No. 2 in the ranking.

National University is at No. 3 despite its 5-2 card in Pinoyliga and 0-3 in Filoil, but the Bulldogs remain a dangerous team capable of competing at a high level because of its solid intact core of Mo Diassana, Reinhard Jumamoy, Ian Manansala, Patrick Yu, PJ Palacielo, Jake Figueroa and rookie Tebol Garcia.

San Beda University – the defending NCAA champion – and College of St. Benilde cracked the top five as the Red Lions occupy No. 4 while the Blazers are at No. 5 in ranking of the Pinoyliga.

“It’s an exciting time for Philippine college basketball as the first The Big Dance ranking is finally here,” said Pinoyliga chief Benny Benitez. 
“The selection committee of the Pinoyliga has put together an initial batch of college basketball programs that we feel are the 40 most competitive in the country.”

“A lot of the non UAAP and NCAA schools are also represented, but most of these (UAAP and NCAA) schools currently playing at Pinoyliga Collegiate Cup are ranked higher because they play for top programs,” added Benitez.

The goal in The Big Dance is to crown the top college program in a tournament similar to the US NCAA’s March Madness. The top 32 college teams will be invited to the Big Dance.

Interestingly, as far as the initial ranking is concerned, Ateneo’s rank is No. 18 while other schools were better like the non-UAAP and non-NCAA in Centro Escular University (No. 6) and Our Lady of Fatima University (No. 11).

The reason why the Blue