After winning the 2003 Fr. Martin's Cup, NU was expected to be a dark horse in the UAAP, perhaps challenging for a possible Final Four berth. Of course, that never happened as the Bulldogs limped out of contention with just three wins in fourteen outings.

"We peaked too soon and failed to sustain our energy level and style of play throughout the tournament," admitted Rico Perez, who's entering his third season as head coach of the Bulldogs.

Learning that important lesson, NU decided not to field a team in summer tournaments like the Fr. Martin's and instead focused on conditioning. "We have to reach our desired level of conditioning, so during the off-season, we focused more on developing our cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength," said Perez.

As much as the Bulldogs have to prepare physically for the upcoming UAAP wars, they also have to find a way to make up for the departure of three key players in Froilan Baguion, Bryan Tolentino and Ronnie Cajayon.

"Those are heavy losses on our part. We will definitely miss the toughness of Baguion and his backup Cajayon and the leadership of Tolentino," shared Perez. "We are not lacking in terms of manpower, it's talent that we lack so we have to make do with what we have," he added.

One talented player who'll be suiting up for his final season is center Rey Mendoza. A member of last season's Mythical Five, Mendoza is expected to carry much of the scoring and rebounding load. Perez is hoping that last year's role players like brothers Dave and Chris Catamora, guards Alex Miclat and Jason Malcontento and forward Behn Balijon are ready to step up.

Although the Bulldogs' new recruits are not as heralded as those of other schools, Perez is optimistic that they can provide quality minutes. NU has added 6'4" Howard Flor from Perpetual Help, 6'2" Cesar Estollano, 5' 11" Jesse Garcia, 6'3" Edwin Asoro and 6'2" Jonathan Fernandez.

Despite the additions, Perez acknowledged that the Bulldogs still do not have the height to match up with the giants of FEU or La Salle and believes that a running game will still be their way to offset their short lineup. NU must nevertheless remember, based on last season, that the UAAP is not a sprint but a marathon.

NU ROSTER

Last year: 3-11, missed Final Four
Head Coach: Rico Perez

ASORO, Edwin 6'3" F
BALIJON, Behn Joseph 6'3" F
CATAMORA, Christopher 6'1" G
CATAMORA, Dave 6'1" G
ESTOLLANO, Cesar 6'2" F
FERNANDEZ, Jonathan 6'2" F
FLOR, Howard 6'4" C/F
GARCIA, Jesse 5'11" G
KING, Ronald Jr. 5'8" G
MALAGUENO, Cyrus Clay 5'9" G
MALCONTENTO, Jason 5'7" G
MENDOZA, Reynaldo Jr. 6'5" C/F
MICLAT, Alexander 5'10" G
MOLLENA, Marlon 6'3" F
MORADAS, Philip Ryan 6'1" G

Making the grade

How we came up with this year's pre-season rankings:

IT'S a fact of hoop life that pre-season rankings really don't matter save as an irresistible but ephemeral vision of things to come. But we like them anyway. To come up with the most accurate seeding possible, the Inquirer polled all eight head coaches and asked them to rank the teams, except for their own, from 1-7, with 1 being the highest and 7 being the lowest. An assistant coach from each squad was asked to do the same, save for two teams who did not have active assistants as of press time.

With the averaged rankings, we produced this year's pre-season top seed: the defending champion Far Eastern University Tamaraws. The Tams were picked to finish first by all but one of the coaches polled. It was a close race for De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University and Adamson University for the remaining slots in the pre-season Final Four, but then there was considerable distance between those four teams and the bottom four. Two teams tied for sixth, but University of Santo Tomas, with more coaches ranking them in a higher spot, got the nod over University of the East for the sixth spot. Now, it's up to the teams to live up to, exceed or fall short of those expectations.