It may have looked too easy after the San Beda University (SBU) Red Lions annexed their third straight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) crown last week with another sweep of the finals against the Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Pirates. Now holding a new league record of owning 22 men’s basketball titles, the perennial NCAA champs also finished the tournament with just a solitary defeat—a seven-point setback to LPU in the first round. But the truth is—they never had it easy this year.