NCAA Basketball Championship (Philippines)


The National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament is held every first semester of the academic year. Each year, eight schools vie to win the two championships: the Juniors and Seniors. If a school wins both championships in one season, it said that they have won the "double championship."
The tournament commences with a double-round robin of eliminations, where the four teams with the best records advance to the semifinals, with the two top seeds clinching the twice to beat advantage. The winners in the semifinals meet in a best-of-3 Finals series, in order to determine the champion.
The championship is continually contested since the league's foundation in 1924, except during World War II and the mid-1960s when scandals rocked the league.
The athletic nicknames of the different teams variously came from the school's founders, or from a distinct quality that separated a school from the others.
Notably, the first champion of this event was crowned in 1925, 14 years before the U.S. NCAA tournament was instituted.

Tournament format

Since 1996, the eight member schools have fielded their varsity teams in a double round elimination tournament, where the schools play each other twice. The four teams with the best records advance to the crossover semifinals, popularly known as the Final Four.
The two top teams have a twice to beat advantage. The lower ranked teams need to win twice against the higher ranked teams to advance to the best-of-three Finals, where the first team to reach two wins becomes the NCAA basketball champion.

Tie-breakers

If any event a team finishes the elimination round undefeated, that team will advance outright to the Finals. The third and fourth seed will have a sudden-death game to determine the opponent of the second seed. Then, the winner of the sudden-death match between the second seed and third/fourth seed advances to the Finals to face the first seed. Previously, the first seed holds a twice to beat advantage in the Finals, until 2008, the finals was in a best-of-three series even if a team swept the elimination round. Since 2010 the team who sweeps the elimination round will automatically go to the Finals with a thrice-to-beat advantage and a 1-0 edge over their opponent, their opponent needs to beat them thrice while the team who sweeps the 2-round elimination will just have to beat their opponents twice.

Previous formats

Prior to 1998, when the NCAA had, for most part of its history, six teams, it employed a double round robin tournament. The winner of the first round would notch the first Final berth, while the winner of the second round would notch the second Final berth.
If a team manages to have the best overall record, yet fails to win either round, that team will play the winner of the second round in a playoff game, to face the winner of the first round in the Championship game. The games of the Championship round are all single-elimination matches, until the 1980s when the Championship game was expanded to a best-of-three series.
If a team manages to win both rounds, the Championship round will be omitted, and that team will be declared outright champions.
In cases of tie, a playoff game will be played to determine which team won the round. If more than two teams are tied, each team will play the teams they are tied with once. If for example, a team won the first round, and is tied with another team for first place at the second round, a playoff game will be played to determine which team wins the round. If the team that won the first round wins in the playoff game, the Championship round will be omitted, since the team won both rounds. If the other team wins, a Championship round will held, since two different teams won the two rounds.

History

Some of the Letran team players were products of their Varsity High School Team namely: Ted McKinney,Ramon San Juan,William Alberto and were also part of the 1976 National Inter-Secondary Champion Team that was held in Baguio City wherein they beat their NCAA rival San Beda College with the score of 52-51
It was a double victory for the Muralla-based cagers as they dominated in winning the Jrs and Srs NCAA Basketball Championship that year. They were also declared the General Champion by the NCAA Management for winning most of the events that the NCAA has provided. It was very sweet for the Knights for getting that award as it was their first time dominating all events.
, as the most popular sport in the Philippines, receives the most attention from the press and the sports-minded public. As a result, the NCAA Seniors Basketball championship is the most coveted title among the NCAA events.
San Beda has the most Seniors basketball title a record 20 times, followed by Colegio de San Juan de Letran with 18 and the Ateneo de Manila is third with 14.
There is a separate division for high school student-athletes, the Juniors division. San Beda High School has the most titles with 22 while the defunct Mapúa High School won 18.
San Beda College leads the overall tally with 42 basketball titles, followed by Letran with 28. Among defunct members, Ateneo has the most championships, with 23.
The current champions are the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Letran Knights, and the Malayan High School of Science Red Robins.

Double Championships

When a school wins both the Juniors and Seniors tournament at the same season, the school is said to have won the double championship.
As of 2014, only seven schools were able to win the double championship:
Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College and San Sebastian College-Recoletos have the most double championships with six apiece. San Beda College also has the most consecutive double championships with five.

Awards

Most Valuable Players

Season

Finals

Rookie of the Year

Scoring records

Lim Eng Beng of the De La Salle Green Archers currently holds the most points scored in an NCAA seniors' game when he scored 55 points in the 1974 season as he led De La Salle Green Archers to the championship. He scored an average of 32 points in that season which remains the all-time record in average points per game in Philippine Men's NCAA.
In 2009, Joshua Saret of the Jose Rizal Light Bombers scored 89 points against Angeles University Foundation to shatter the all-time high mark set by ex-teammate Keith Agovida at 82 points on September 5, 2008, against Malayan Science HS.
Prior to their record-breaking feats, Letran Squire Marlon Bola Bola held the single-game record of 70 points in 1970.

Seniors' scoring leaders

Origin of team monikers