‘He’s our MVP:’ Perpetual living and dying with Prince Eze

There are a couple of things that always resonate when the name Frankie Lim is mentioned: first is winning championships and the second is having a dominant big man.

Lim was the architect of the San Beda dynasty in the early 2000s winning four NCAA titles with the Red Lions and he had two of the generation’s most talented big men anchoring his team during those championship runs.

Sam Ekwe and Sudan Daniel were the undisputed bosses of the red-laden paint during Lim’s time with San Beda and the multi-titled coach may  have just found his new main man in Prince Eze.

Lim is now the head coach of University of Perpetual Help in the NCAA Season 94 men’s basketball tournament and he had Eze in full display during their 85-77 overtime win against San Sebastian Thursday at Filoil Flying V Centre.

Eze played every minute of the game and finished with a monstrous 25-point, 23-rebound double-double, a line so marvelous that Lim foresaw the birth of his third most valuable player.

“The whole game he raised his MVP numbers,” said Lim. “He’s our MVP.”

“He’s a very important player in our system and we’re glad that he’s responding to the minutes given to him and everybody knows that we’ll live and die with Prince.”

It was under Lim’s tutelage that Ekwe and Daniel became such dominating forces in the NCAA as the two big men each shared and MVP plum.

Lim said that he was always happy to see his foreign players reach their full potential.

“When I handled Ekwe we maximized him and when he wanted to shoot outside shots we let him and we went the same path with Sudan,” said Lim. “If you want to do stuff in the game you just have to consistently practice.”