ALLAN THE MAN

National University (NU) superstar Bobby Ray Parks needs time to think about his next move after he and the Bulldogs were ousted by the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Growling Tigers in the Final Four of the UAAP Season 76 tournament.

The Bulldogs were the top-seeded team and had twice-to-beat advantage, but they ran into an inspired UST team who made history by becoming the first fourth-seed in the Final Four era to topple the No. 1 team.

“It sucks to lose,” a subdued Parks told reporters after they lost 69-76 to UST last Saturday. “But hey, they showed up, they played tough, and they played their type of basketball. So congratulations to them.”

The NBA Finals could return to a 2-2-1-1-1 format. The league's Competition Committee voted unanimously to recommend the change from the current 2-3-2 system and owners will vote on it next month at their meetings.

"The idea was raised at the Competition Committee and was well-received and the committee ultimately unanimously voted to recommend the change in format," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said Sunday (Monday, Manila time).

If approved, it hasn't been decided if the change would begin with the 2014 finals.

Miss Philippines' Megan Young, was crowned Miss World 2013 in a glittering finale on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday.

“I promise to be the best Miss World ever,” Young, 23, said after winning the 63rd annual event, as a large number of Filipino fans who traveled with her celebrated by jumping and waving the country’s flag.

The San Mig Coffee Mixers used tough defense to go on a late run to get away from the Meralco Bolts, 83-73, in the opening game of their best-of-five semifinals series on Sunday at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.

It was a tight defensive struggle between the two teams for most of the game, with Meralco behind by only a single point midway through the fourth quarter, 70-69, after a desperation three-pointer by John Wilson to beat the 24-second buzzer.

Former Barangay Ginebra import Donald Sloan is looking forward to his return to the Philippines, this time as a member of the Indiana Pacers.

Sloan, who played for Ginebra in the 2011 Governors’ Cup, was signed by the Pacers this off-season and will be with the team when they visit Manila on October 10 with the Houston Rockets in the first ever pre-season game to be played in the country.

The Philippine national youth basketball team advanced to the second round of the FIBA Asia Under-16 Boys’ Championship in Tehran, Iran after splitting its first two assignments in the preliminary rounds.

The Filipinos edged Kazakhstan, 90-88, in their opening assignment on Thursday before yielding a 95-90 result to Chinese Taipei.

The loss to the Taiwanese spoiled a big game from Ateneo high school star Mike Nieto, who finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds in the defeat.