Photo from UAAP
MANILA, Philippines—Mark Nonoy’s performance was one of the few bright spots for University of Santo Tomas in its 66-52 loss to Ateneo in the UAAP Season 82 men’s basketball tournament.
Growling Tigers head coach Aldin Ayo fielded 11 players against the Blue Eagles and only Nonoy managed to score in double digits with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting while the rest of the team went 13-of-52 from the field.
Nonoy had a career-high but Ayo would’ve wanted his 5-foot-8 point guard to be more of a facilitator than a scorer.
“To be honest, I’m worried that he scored a lot of points because, supposedly, he has to make his teammates better,” said Ayo Saturday at Mall of Asia Arena.
“It just so happened that he was open earlier. What I fear is he might look for his shots even harder next game, which is not his role to begin with. The coaches want him to be a point guard, not a shooting guard,” added Ayo in Filipino.
Nonoy is a proven scorer having displayed that offensive ability in his lone year with UST in high school in Season 81 putting up 21.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 2.6 steals but Ayo and the rest of his coaching staff would rather see the former Tiger Cub invovle his teammates more.
Still adjusting to the college game, Nonoy is averaging just 9.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists.
Ayo feels Nonoy should start becoming a pass-first guard to prepare himself for the pros.
“He really has to become a point guard because you don’t see a 5-foot-8 shooting guard in the PBA,” said Ayo. “Hopefully next game he won’t get 18 points, I want him to score 10 or 12 as long as he has 15 assists and he can execute our plays.”
Ayo added that it’s not just Nonoy who he wants to start preparing for the future as he also noted that center Soulemane Chabiyo, who stands at 6-foot-4, would be more effective as wing in international leagues.
“I don’t want to use them just in college because it won’t be fair to the players. Even Chabi next year would play the two or three positions because we recruited legitimate big men,” said Ayo.
“We’re going to make them better, but everything has to start right now. We just have to be patient.”