COACH OF THE YEAR
Glen Capacio (FEU)
Different teams suffer their respective problems. Sometimes, teams lack a leader to take charge while other teams simply lack the talent to win. Glen Capacio’s team suffers from no such dearth. FEU marched into this season with a largely intact Final Four roster and with three key players spending time with Smart Gilas—the Tamaraw roster looked more stacked than ever. With a roster as such, a new set of problems may arise; complacency, jealousies or an all together tuning out of leadership. However, under the tutelage of Coach Capacio, none of these have come to surface, resulting in a clean 7-0 record and the Coach of the Year nod at the halfway mark.
Leo Austria (AdU)
The Adamson turnaround has been nothing short of spectacular. Coming into Season 73 pegged as one of the teams to watch, the Falcons have established themselves as legitimate championship contenders heading into the turn with a 5-2 record—good for second in the league. Coach Austria’s rotation decisions have paid immediate dividends. By bringing star forward Eric Camson off the bench Coach Austria not only gets to start hard-nosed rookie William Stinnett to smother the opposing perimeter star but also brings balance within the offense, allowing Camson to dominate the second unit leading to three players—Camson, Alex Nuyles and Lester Alvarez—averaging double digit points in the first seven games.
Norman Black (Ateneo)
The Ateneo reign as back-to-back champions does not afford Coach Norman Black any favors. Despite completely retooling both his offense and defense, the 5-2 record the Blue Eagles sport is seen as a disappointment coming off consecutive 14-1 seasons. Belittled is the revamping of his grind out offense, replaced with a mandate to push the ball at every opportunity. With the loss of defensive stalwart Nonoy Baclao, the defense has been pushed into hyper-drive with ball pressure taking precedence over the collapsing defense from Seasons 71 and 72. With Ateneo’s ability to retool while remaining in the championship hunt, the extended run of excellence enjoyed in Katipunan will ironically lead to the passover of the Blue Eagle coach at year’s end.
well-researched. nice.
Rookie – Mbe (that’s NU not AdU)
Silungan’s good in his own right but he’s no bread-and-butter guy like Mbe. You can even claim that he can be a momentum-killer for his own team when he’s jacking up all those 3s.
6th Man – Camson
No-brainer. Salva’s handling his role-shift well, but he can not produce that much and Ateneo can still win. Camson with a poor performance provides a way bigger disadvantage for AdU. That talks volumes of a player’s value to the team. Salva’s a better player, but that’s not what the category’s all about.
Defensive – it’s a toss-up, but slight edge to Ramos I guess
Coach – Leo Austria
Who the hell thought they’d be this high up?
Just a quick question — does the UAAP choose the Mythical 5 based on stat points alone? Or is there a voting panel of experts or something 😕