Ateneo Blue Eagles - Sports - Basketball - Records

Records

UAAP and NCAA
The late Ateneo college athletic moderator, Fr. Edgar A. Martin, S.J., once said that "basketball brings glory to Ateneo". The student-athletes of Ateneo share in this belief. As of the year 2012, Ateneo has 50 combined NCAA (23) and UAAP (27) basketball titles, which include championships won in men's, women's, juniors' and midgets' divisions. This is more than the total number of combined titles in men's, women's, and juniors' divisions held by University of Santo Tomas, which has 42 (40 UAAP and 2 NCAA), San Beda College, which has 37 NCAA titles, Far Eastern University with 32 UAAP titles, Colegio de San Juan de Letran with 26 NCAA titles, De La Salle University, which has 23 (10 in the NCAA and 13 in the UAAP) and Mapúa Institute of Technology also with 23 NCAA titles.

In men's basketball, the Ateneo Blue Eagles have won 22 titles as of 2012, 14 in the NCAA and 8 in the UAAP. The Ateneo Blue Eaglets have 8 NCAA and 17 UAAP titles in juniors basketball, 1 NCAA title in the Midgets division won in 1924, for a total of 26. The Blue Eaglets have won 25 combined NCAA and UAAP titles in the juniors division. This is the most number of juniors title won by a high school team in the major leagues, followed by San Beda with 20 and Mapua with 18. The Lady Eagles have won two UAAP titles.

Basketball Championships

Ateneo has won seven double championships in basketball. These were years when both the Blue Eagles and the Blue Eaglets won the championship in the same year. The years 1975 and 1976 were doubly significant as Ateneo not only won double championships in the NCAA but also a back-to-back double championship, a feat that they repeated with championships in both the seniors and juniors divisions in 2008 and 2009 in the UAAP. In 2010, Ateneo won again the championships in both men's and juniors basketball, annexing the only three-peat double championship in combined UAAP and NCAA history.

Double Championships

The Blue Eagles have won back-to-back titles six times. Four were won in the NCAA and two in the UAAP. The Blue Eagles became three-peat champions when they won the NCAA title in 1931, 1932 and 1933. They also accomplished a three-peat sweep by going undefeated in these three consecutive seasons, a record which has not been surpassed much less duplicated by any team in the NCAA and UAAP. They were again three-peat champions when they won the championship in 2008, 2009, and 2010, their first in the UAAP. They were the first collegiate team to accomplish a three-peat in both the NCAA and UAAP. In 2011, they joined an elite group in the UAAP when they won the 2011 UAAP Men's Basketball Championship. They became the fourth UAAP team to be four-peat champions, joining UE, UST and La Salle. In 2012, they separated from this group when they won their fifth consecutive title. They are now the sole team in the five-peat championship bracket.

The Blue Eaglets were four-peat champions having won the title in 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986. They were also three-time three-peat champions and eight times, they won back-to-back titles.

The Ateneo Blue Eaglets have the most number of UAAP elimination round sweeps at six. The Blue Eagles and Lady Eagles are not as successful. They have not achieved a sweep of the elimination round in the UAAP. However, the Blue Eagles did sweep elimination rounds when they were still playing in the NCAA. They swept the elimination round of three consecutive seasons enroute to the 1931, 1932 and 1933 NCAA titles. This double-feat achievement of a three-peat championship via a three-peat sweep is a record that still stands today and may never be broken.

Elimination Round Sweep

In the UAAP, the Blue Eagles hold the record for the longest Final Four consecutive appearances. They made 14 Final Four appearances from 1999 to 2012 to La Salle's 16, which is the standing record in most number of appearances. However, Ateneo's 14 appearances are consecutive, whereas only 12 of La Salle's 16 appearances were consecutive.

The Blue Eaglets have the most number of Final Four appearances at 16 as of 2012. This number does not include the four seasons (1997, 1999, 2006 and 2010) when the Blue Eaglets swept the elimination round and automatically advanced to the Finals. These 16 Final Four appearances still tops the 12 appearances each of the Adamson Baby Falcons and UST Tiger Cubs. The Lady Eagles have made six Final Four appearances as of 2012.

UAAP Final 4 Appearances

The Blue Eagles, Lady Eagles and Blue Eaglets made it to the Final Four in the same season, five times.

Final 4 Triple Appearances

• 2003
• 2004
• 2005
• 2007
• 2012

The Blue Eagles made eleven trips to the UAAP Finals, and the Lady Eagles had four trips. The Blue Eaglets are tops in the UAAP Finals appearance category. They were in the Finals twenty-seven times. In the Final Four era, they were in the Finals sixteen times as of 2011, while it was ten for second-placer UST Tiger Cubs. The Eaglets also hold the record for the longest Finals consecutive appearance. They were in the Finals in eleven consecutive seasons, from 1994 (season 57) to 2004 (season 67).

UAAP Finals Appearances (1993-start of Final 4 format)

UAAP Finals 30 pointers
There are only three players in the new (third) millennium that have scored 30 points or more in the UAAP Finals. All three are Blue Eagles.

• Lewis Alfred "LA" Tenorio - 30 points in 2001
• Rabeh Ahmed Al-Hussaini- 31 points in 2008
• Nicolas Raymond "Nico" Salva - 30 points in 2012

The Blue Eagles also hold the record of winning in the most lopsided game ever in both NCAA-UAAP seniors division history. In NCAA Season 6 (1929), Ateneo blew the NU Bulldogs off the court by the score of 97-9.

The Eagle was not always the King. Up to the 1970s, Ateneo had the most number of collegiate basketball championships in the NCAA. The Blue Eagles had fourteen championship titles when they left the NCAA in 1978. San Beda, their closest rival, was second with only 10 championships at that time. When they transferred to the UAAP, Ateneo struggled to soar high as it did in the NCAA. It took the Blue Eagles eleven years to win a championship again. After this back-to-back (1987 and 1988) championship, Ateneo had to wait another fourteen years for their next championship which happened in 2002.

Other Leagues and Tournaments
In addition to the NCAA and UAAP championships, recent victories of the Blue Eagles include the back-to-back titles (2008 and 2009) and the 2011 championship in the annual Philippine University Games, the championship of the Fr. Martin Summer Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2012, and the 2008 Nike Summer League. The Blue Eagles also finally won a championship in the Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup in 2011. This is their first since participating in 2007.

At the national level, the Blue Eagles won the title of the 2007 Collegiate Champions League, and its successor, the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) in 2009 and 2010, giving it the most titles among the tournament's winners. The PCCL is a basketball tournament patterned after the US NCAA Sweet 16. The Philippine version is composed of 16 teams from all over the country which are champions or runners-up of their local leagues.