The National University Basketball Championship began at the UdeC

By Christopher Cortez Alarcon

The UdeC, Penquista’s main house of studies, is receiving another National University Championship (CNU). After the successful passage of volleyball through the house of sport between the 2nd and 7th of this month, now it is basketball that takes the lights from this Sunday until next Friday.

After a regional classification instance, there are 16 universities that will be present in the basket contest, which will be held again after four years. “We, in some cases like this, held the last national championships in 2018 because later came the social explosion and there were some that were suspended,” explained Víctor Méndez, head of Sports at the UdeC, the institution that applied and was selected as organizer.

Among the participants, the Ucsc and the USS appear as representatives of the Biobío region, in addition to the homeowner Universidad de Concepción.

positive balance

Competitions of this caliber are returning to normal after everything that happened with the social and health crisis. 2022 has been a year of sporting reunion for many athletes and the community in general and that is how it has been seen: great performances on the field and important scenarios created by the fans around it. In fact, it is also highlighted by Gernot Hecht, president of the National University Sports Federation.

“We are extremely happy as Fenaude, the institutions, the athletes, the teachers, everyone, to return to the face-to-face activity of local, regional and national competitions. I see them super happy and motivated. The interest of the universities in general has been very important: last December we already had the calendar finished for 2022 and now we are in the period of managing the following year”, Hecht pointed out.

Along these lines, Víctor Méndez emphasizes that it is important to return since “there is almost a whole generation of students who have passed and have not been able to carry out their activity as we are used to.”

While Concepción was and is the scene of volleyball and basketball, Fenaude has budgeted around 40 championships during the year in his eagerness to return to sports normality. In different cities and dates, specialties such as table tennis, taekwondo, chess, handball and a long etcetera are being developed.

“We advanced in the calendar without any surprises, except in some discipline where we have less participation of teams due to budget issues. We are holding competitions in various cities. For example, last week in Valparaíso we started rugby sevens and this week we started swimming in Santiago, in parallel with basketball”, Hecht said.

Volleyball as an example

What happened a little over a week ago can mean a stick when talking about the return of the CNU to the University of Concepción and, therefore, predict what will happen during the present. The volleyball tournament left a good taste in the mouth due to the level of the teams and the support of the fans.

“The response from the student community was spectacular. The last three days were with the House of Sport full. We received congratulations from many of the delegations for the organizational level”, described the head of Sports UdeC. Méndez added that “an orderly tournament was achieved, with the athletes as protagonists, with a good number of streaming transmissions.”

The president of Fenaude was not far behind and also praised that “from the point of view of the organization, we are extremely happy and calm with all the prestige and experience of the University of Concepción in the organization of sporting events at the national level. From the sporting point of view, I think it was a very good championship, it had a lot of participation and very good teams”.

“The standard is quite high and I have no doubt that the same will happen in basketball,” Gernot Hecht closed. Méndez, for his part, anticipates that it is also budgeted to have streaming broadcasts for this new contest, although focused mainly on the final instances.

favorites again

El Campanil owns the house and DT Cipriano Núñez takes responsibility for favoritism and indicates that “we should lead the group according to my personal appreciation. We have high expectations, we want to go for the title, we have a team to win and we have to focus well on the job so as not to have any surprises”.

Of course, it is clear that “we care about ourselves and not about our rivals, but there are a couple of teams that are interesting and that have players in the (national) league. Various types of rivals arrive at these tournaments and also different quality. The teams from the north, which sometimes don’t have regular competitions, are weaker on paper, but we respect everyone”.

The auricielos presented themselves with a mixed squad between players-students from the first team (two-time LNB champion and recent two-time super champion) and other basketball players who compete in Adesup competitions. Juan Pablo Alvarado, Sebastián Carrasco, Michael Rivera, Lino Sáez, Andrés Domínguez, Matías Castro and Ricardo Maass stand out.

During yesterday’s session, the opening ceremony was held and, in addition, six matches corresponding to the group stage were played. The foreros defeated the University of Atacama by a resounding 122-24. El Campanil won the first quarter 43-0, reflecting their superiority. The top scorers were Maass and Alvarado, with 18 points each.