Top Bulldog Parks nails 2nd straight MVP plum
NATIONAL University’s Ray Parks had downplayed his bid for back-to-back UAAP Most Valuable Player honors to focus on the Bulldogs’ Final Four campaign.
But it was the same goal that secured for Parks his second MVP plum in as many years in the league after the 19-year-old star topped the statistical race at the end of the elimination round.
As in his debut season last year, Parks led the league in scoring with an average of 21.4 points and impressively ranked in the top 10 of every statistical department of the men’s basketball tournament.
But unlike last year’s run where NU wound up fifth, Parks finally powered the Bulldogs to the semifinals for the first time in 11 years.
“It’s not just all about me; the team really helped me out,” said Parks. “It’s not all about me scoring; it’s more about the team trying to share the ball. That’s the biggest thing we changed coming in this year.”
Parks emerged as the first player in seven years to bag the top individual plum consecuvely since 2004-05, when Far Eastern University’s Arwind Santos pulled off the same feat.
The 6-foot-3 Parks also led the league in steals at 1.5 spg aside from finishing third in assists at 4.4, sixth in blocks at 1.3 and ninth in rebounds at 7.2.
Parks edged University of Santo Tomas’ Karim Abdul and Ateneo’s Greg Slaughter for the award.
La Salle’s Jeron Teng ran away with the Rookie of the Year honors after averaging a fifth-best 16.6 points on top of 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
“He’s just an amazing kid,” La Salle coach Gee Abanilla said of Teng, the son of former pro Alvin Teng who exploded for 104 points in a single game as a high school star in Xavier.
The official awarding of the MVP—which is determined solely on statistical points—will be held during the championship round.
Erstwhile leader Abdul led the league both in rebounding (12.2) and steals (1.5) aside from norming 16.9 points and 2.0 blocks.
Slaughter completed the top three with averages of 14.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and a league-best 2.9 blocks.
