The Ateneo Blue Eagles swept their archrivals De La Salle Green Archers in two games to clinch their first UAAP title since 2002, and to give head coach Norman Black his first collegiate championship.

Castro was an assistant coach of Glenn Capacio for the FEU Tamaraws, and of Chot Reyes for the Philippines men's national basketball team, the San Miguel Beermen and Talk 'N Text Phone Pals.

In the elimination round finale against the Green Archers they never let La Salle lead, en route to a 65-57 win against their arch-rivals.

The 13-1 league leading Blue Eagles faced the 9-5 UE Red Warriors in the semifinals, and ended the fourth seed team's season, with a 70-50 win.

With head coach Franz Pumaren out of the country coaching the under-18 team in the FIBA Asia Under-18 Championship 2008, La Salle prevented overtime with a buzzer-beating put-back for the win against UST, and an overtime win against Adamson to ensure a semifinals berth.

However, starting power forward Marnel "Mac" Baracael was shot outside school premises that caused him to be sidelined.

In a rematch of 2007 Finals, UE got some sort of vengeance as the defeated La Salle, but the Archers got payback as they met each other again four days later.

Avenging their first round loss against Adamson, UE eliminated UST despite giving up their 24-point lead in the fourth quarter to clinch their semifinals berth.

La Salle and FEU ended tied for second; as a result, a playoff was held to determine which team will clinch the #2 seed and the twice-to-beat advantage that goes along with it, leading to a de facto first game of a best-of-three series.

After James Mangahas split his charities after a foul in the ensuing rebound play, Paul Sanga missed a desperation three-pointer.

[9] However, the security wasn't able to prevent thievery as members of the "Salisi (theft) Gang" were able to steal several items inside the coliseum at the first game.

La Salle wasn't able to hold on, and Al-Hussaini scored all of his seven points in the third quarter to lead the Ateneo counter-attack.

Ateneo had a 10-4 run in the final minutes, capped by a three-point play by Jai Reyes to clinch their fourth UAAP title.

Maierhofer was in tears as he walked towards the dugout; La Salle was called for 29 fouls, awarding Ateneo 28 free-throws of which they converted 18.

They are:[16] After the Ateneo's first round defeat of La Salle, La Salle coach Franz Pumaren contested the technical given to him for not wearing his ID; previously, UST coach Pido Jarencio wasn't issued a technical when he wasn't wearing his ID.

[18] Jarencio for his part said that he is willing to accept any sanctions for not wearing his ID, including two technical free throws in their next game.

Bryan Tabañag made several errant calls that "deprived FEU a fair chance to determine who the better team was," according to NABRO president Rolando Omampo.