Season 27 Spotlight: the bench players
If you want to know how competitive division III.7 is, ask the bench players of DLSU IE-98.
Third year guard Carey Velez, the Engineers' 25th pick, shared his thoughts on playing against division III players. "It's a very tough conference, (it's) like being in the playoffs every game". The mercurial guard averaged 7.1 ppg, 40% FG and 34% from the three point line last season, which is way below his current averages of 3.8 ppg, 31% FG and 33% 3pt.
This is also evident in the player rotation of the team: only one player has averaged more than 10 minutes of playing time per game in season 27 (HongKong small forward Yau Fusheng). Sixth man Lou Modina, who averaged 7.8 ppg and 6.3 rpg at roughly 18 mpg last season, has so far contributed only 2.4 ppg and 2.8 rpg with roughly 10 mpg of playing time. "This is very frustrating. You got your momentum for being in the finals last season but so far we're playing as if we are an expansion team... We are looking forward to play better basketball in the next couple of games."
Rookie Caesar Jesus is also feeling the pressure to do well off the bench. "I'm learning what I can from DJ everyday, and I tale every mistake as a learning experience for me to do better next time." Caesar has averages of 3ppg, 0.6 rpg, 0.4 apg, 33% FG and 14% 3pt this season.