UAAP Season 84 will be a unique year for the league’s rookies.
For the first time in the league’s modern era, there will be two batches that are eligible for the Rookie of the Year award — those who were true freshmen in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years.
That makes for almost 30 eligible candidates to be this year’s top first-year student-athlete.
But among those, three stood out so far according to Tiebreaker Times’ unofficial statistical points tally.
University of the Philippines’ Carl Tamayo, Far Eastern University’s RJ Abarrientos, and De La Salle University’s Michael Phillips are figuring in a heated three-way race to earn the award.
Currently, Tamayo is leading the pack with 52.9 statistical points, coming from his 12.0 points and 7.14 rebounds averages. It also helped that the Fighting Maroons have six wins so far to end the first round.
Breathing down his neck though are Abarrientos and Phillips.
Abarrientos, who enrolled in college in 2020, is averaging 14.86 points, 4.86 rebounds, and 2.29 assists while helping the Tamaraws pick up four wins. The 22-year-old guard currently has 50.7 SPs by Tiebreaker Times’ count.
Meanwhile, Phillips, who graduated from Creekside High School in 2020, is putting up numbers of 7.0 points, 9.86 rebounds, 1.43 blocks, and 1.0 assists per contest while powering the Green Archers to five wins. That’s good for 50.3 SPs.
Other notable rookies who can further create a logjam in the race are University of Santo Tomas’ Nic Cabanero (44.7 SPs) and the National University trio of Janjan Felicilda (35.3), Jake Figueroa (35.1), and Reyland Torres (31.1).
To reiterate, master’s student-athletes like UP’s Zavier Lucero and UST’s Joshua Fontanilla are not eligible to win the award along with transferees like Ateneo’s Chris Koon or La Salle’s Evan Nelle.
Still, this batch is a bumper crop of young studs not seen in year’s past.
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