ALLAN THE MAN

Former NBA superstar Hakeem Olajuwon sees a bright season for Houston with the Rockets’ recent acquisition of Dwight Howard.

Olajuwon, who was recently hired by Houston as the team’s player development specialist, said pairing the former Laker with their very own Jeremy Lin could be a deadly combination for the Rockets.

Boxing coach Freddie Roach thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought a tactical and highly defensive fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

But while Roach admitted that Mayweather has a slick boxing style, he still considers the pound-for-pound king a boring fighter.

De La Salle University (DLSU) Green Archers controlled the game from start to finish to beat Far Eastern University (FEU) Tamaraws, 74-69, and move one win away from the UAAP 76 men's basketball finals on Saturday, September 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Green Archers went on a 9-0 run in the first quarter to take the driver's seat and never let it go, as the Taft-based squad scored its 8th straight win and pulled ahead, 1-0, in a virtual best-of-three for the second finals slot.

France dethroned two-time defending champions Spain with a 75-72 overtime win in Friday's second Semi-Final at EuroBasket 2013 to return to the Final and set up a showdown against Lithuania.

Tony Parker scored 32 points and Antoine Diot had 10 points including four free-throws in the final 23 seconds as France came back from a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat their nemesis and now will take aim at winning their first European title on Sunday.

Lithuania are in the EuroBasket final for the fifth time - and first since the 2003 title - knocking off Croatia 77-62 to set up a date with either France to decide ultimate EuroBasket 2013 glory.

Croatia will fight for their third bronze medal after 1993 and 1995.

Senator Pia Cayetano on Friday lashed out at officials of UAAP schools over the non-participation of athletes in swimming events, calling it “a sad sad day in Philippine sports.”

Swimmers from University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle University did not compete on Thursday reportedly in protest of a court ruling allowing University of the Philippines swimmer Mikee Bartolome to compete in the UAAP.

Manny Pacquiao isn’t the only international celebrity in the family. His outspoken mother Dionisia Dapidran, 64, was mentioned in Adam Smith’s book “Beautifully Brutal – the Family Ties at the Heart of Boxing,” published in London last year.

Mommy Dionisia went to the US for the first time to watch her son fight Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in 2009.