MANILA -- The absence of Andy Mark Barroca from Far Eastern U’s line up versus University of the East in the Final Four wars could leave the Tamaraws psychologically affected when they face the Red Warriors on Saturday’s in the 72nd UAAP Men’s Basketball.

It was reported that FEU has decided not to field the five-foot-nine playmaker on their first Final Four match up with UE amid speculations that Barroca was suspected of deliberately playing “lacklusterly”.

This reportedly fanned speculations he has been in cahoots with “game-fixers.” The rumor, however, has yet to be confirmed.

“The mere silence of FEU officials is fuelling all of these speculations. There’s also the fact that for a couple of days nobody knew where Andy Barroca was. So obviously something wasn’t right. But exactly what happened? It’s all speculation at this point,” Sid Ventura, senior writer for Rebound Magazine, said in an interview on ANC’s sports program “Hardball”.

Ventura said that Barroca’s “exit” could affect the rest of the FEU team in the sense that it could have created a rift within the squad.

“There was also a report that came out that his teammates have voted not to let him play. If that’s true, then that means that there was a major rift that happened,” said Ventura.

“It’s got to affect you mentally and psychologically and because they think that he might have been up to ‘no good’,” he added.

No stranger to crisis
Another sports analyst thinks that FEU can still pull through its latest crisis because it was able to weather similar situations in the past.

“FEU is no stranger to things like this,” said Rebound Magazine senior writer Christian Soler. “With Mac Baracael in 2008, he gets into some kind of a situation. The year before that, JR Gerrila, their leading rebounder in 2007, getting axed after three games.”

Baracael was sidelined from play in 2008 after being shot by unidentified suspects near FEU. Gerilla’s issue, meanwhile, was quite similar to Barroca’s.

“It’s no surprise that the limelight is unfortunately into the institution again,” said Soler.

The game itself
Soler said that in terms of performance, FEU is practically the same as UE, their fiercest UAAP rival.

“If we’re talking about an FEU-UE series, I don’t think that the effect’s gonna be big. For one, if you look at the numbers, both teams are practically the same,” he said.

The fourth-ranked Tamaraws enjoy a twice-to-beat edge over the Warriors.

Unlike FEU, however, UE is coming off a win while wrapping their final elimination match up with the University of Sto Tomas last week.

The Tamaraws got a beating from the Ateneo Blue Eagles also last week, losing the chance to get the Final Four top seeding.

“If you’re an FEU fan, you should be concerned about things like the free throw shooting for example. If you’re gonna shoot an abysmal 61 percent from the charity stripe, that is not indicative of the quality of a champion team,” said Soler.

With a report from Business Mirror