Blue Eagles head coach Norman Black is hoping his players would remain healthy the rest of the way as they move closer to posting a rare “four-peat” in the UAAP.

“Fortunately we don’t have any major injury concerns for the past three years,” said Black, after Ateneo walloped chief rival De La Salle, 79-62, on Sunday to stay unbeaten at 11-0.

“So that [health] will be the concern for us and hopefully there will be no serious injuries on my players,” he added.

Veteran forward Nico Salva echoed his coach’s concern.

“We should stay healthy and keep our legs fresh for the long stretch,” said Salva, who poured a game-high 19 points against the Green Archers.

Ateneo is now three wins away from sweeping the double-round eliminations that will give them the tremendous incentive of having to be beaten thrice by their rival in the finals.

The Blue Eagles have University of the Philippines (UP), National University (NU) and Adamson as their last three assignments.

“We’ve discussed about it [of sweeping the eliminations] so that it would be out in the open and not whispered [about],” said Black. “We just decided to take it one game at a time but if we do have the opportunity to sweep it, we will go for it.”

Sweeps, however, do not guarantee a title, at least in the league’s computer-recorded history.

In 1993 University of Santo Tomas (UST), coached by Aric del Rosario, swept the eliminations and was automatically declared champion.

In 2007 University of the East also swept all the 14 games of the eliminations, but the Dindo Pumaren-coached Red Warriors only got an automatic finals seat and beaten by De La Salle in the best-of-three finals, 2-0.

After 2007, the league has adopted a rule whereby a team that goes 14-0 would get a thrice-to-beat advantage in the finals, while needing only one victory to grab the crown.

(Joel Orellana)