Monday afternoon was supposed to be the celebration of Prince Eze’s spectacular season. Though the Nigerian student-cager was crowned the Most Valuable Player for the 94th Season of the NCAA Seniors basketball Tournament, a part of the SM Mall of Asia Arena jeered him.
Clearly, some members of the audience are still hurt that CJ Perez was disqualified from the race.
However, even if Perez had not been suspended prior to the Finals, Eze would have still won the MVP crown, as the Perpetualite led the Lycean in the Player All-around Value ladder, 61.39 to 58.28.
Upon hearing this, Eze could not help but rue the reception he received.
“I mean life is not fair.
“San Beda, look at that team – they’re tall. My team is fair. We have to deal with what we have. Lyceum has a good team [as well],” he shared. “But this is basketball. We started from scratch but our coach tells us to have no excuses.”
Last season, the 6-foot-10 Alta was the leader of the MVP race with norms of 14.5 points, 17.3 rebounds, 2,1 blocks per game. But with Perpetual tallying just three wins, he busted out of the race, and Perez went on to win the crown.
“CJ is MVP last season but I was leading and we didn’t get to the Final Four,” he recalled.
Rules are rules, as they say.
With this, Eze believes that he deserves to be the MVP. But he could not help but lament that Perez was not with him in the All-NCAA team.
“So if they want this, they should go get it.
“Last season, I didn’t make the playoffs and I was not happy. But I feel much better now. I wish CJ was here also,” he closed.
