UST's Cruz leads pack in race for UAAP MVP

Jervy Cruz, center of the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers, is leading the statistical points (SPs) category in the race for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the 70th University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball tournament. At the end of the double-round eliminations, the 21-year-old Cruz, the Tigers' main scorer and rebounder, loomed as the heavy favorite to notch the coveted award by garnering an all-around value of 75.86 SPs, lording it over 120 other players. The six-foot-four former RP Youth stalwart is the league’s leading rebounder with 15.4 per game. He made an average of 16.7 points, the league's third best. This impressive double-double production carried the Tigers to eight victories (with six defeats) at the end of the regular season. Cruz also had 10 double-doubles in the 14 games he played and also averaged a decent 1.2 in assists and 1.4 in blocked shots. If Cruz wins the award, he will be the third UST player to bag the MVP crown since the Final Four format was introduced by the league in 1994. Former King Tiger and now Sta. Lucia slotman Dennis Espino won the award in 1994, followed by fellow Tigers center Chris Cantonjos who bagged the title in 1995 and 1996. At far second behind Cruz is Patrick Cabahug of the Adamson Falcons with 62.57 SPs. The veteran sniper, who is on his last year with his team, made up for his squad’s lackluster performance by emerging as the league’s top scorer, with an average of 21.3 points per game. He also averaged 8.4 rebounds, the league's fourth best. Next is Edwin Asoro of the also-ran National University (NU) Bulldogs with 60.79 SPs, followed by Joseph Casio and Rico Maierhofer, both of the La Salle Green Archers, with 55.79 and 53.43, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 are Ateneo’s Ford Arao (51.93), University of the East’s Mark Borboran (51.21), Far Eastern University’s Marnel Baracael (50.21), Ateneo’s Chris Tiu (49.14), and La Salle’s TY Tang (48.93). For Rookie of the Year, FEU's Ric Cawaling is the leading candidate. The Tamaraws' top sniper accumulated 36.64 SPs to lead erstwhile frontrunner Mike Gamboa of the University of the Philippines and Ateneo’s Kirk Long, who have 32.36 and 28.33, respectively. The Bulldogs' Jonathan Fernandez is the league’s second top points producer with a 17.6, followed by Cruz’s 16.7 and Casio’s 15.0. Besides Cruz, Asoro, power forward of the Bulldogs, is the only other player to average a double-double with 13.1 points and 11.1 rebounds. UST’s Japs Cuan is the league’s best playmaker, dishing out 4.6 assists per game, while Asoro is also the league’s chief thief, with 1.7 steals. Ateneo’s Nonoy Baclao is the top shot blocker, with an average of 1.7 per game. Besides the SPs, the individual awards, which also include the Mythical Five, are decided by the votes from the league officials, players and coaches, as well as that of the media covering the tournament. SPs are computed by adding a player’s points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and won-game bonus (15 per win), minus technical fouls (5 points) and ejections (10) divided by the number of games played. - GMANews.TV