Louie Sangalang, despite the monster numbers he churned out in NCAA Season 98, is not eligible to cop any individual award after being slapped with a two-game suspension early in Colegio de San Juan de Letran's campaign.
But his inability to win an individual plum allows for the 6-foot-4 big man, who averaged 10.38 points, 7.75 rebounds, and 1.44 blocks in the elimination round, to put the premium on helping his school complete the dream of a three-peat instead.
"Sa amin, 'yung individual awards, hindi mahalaga sa amin eh kasi iisa lang ang goal namin," Sangalang said.
"Kahit na walang award sa amin basta makuha namin 'yung championship. Lahat ng team 'yun naman 'yung goal eh, pero yung individual awards, 'di namin pinaguusapan 'yun kahit sa practice."
"Sa kanila na."
("For us, individual awards are not important because we only have one goal in mind. Even if no one wins an individual award, as long as we win the championship. That's the goal of every team, but we don't even talk about individual awards in practice... Other teams can have those.")
Sangalang was on point in Game 1 of their title showdown against De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde on Sunday, dropping a new career-high of 24 points to go along with 10 rebounds, two assists, one steal, and a block.
He also shot 10-of-11 from the field in a near-perfect shooting performance.
Sangalang hopes the Knights are able to finish off the Blazers next Sunday as he acknowledged that Benilde was the toughest team they faced so far in the season.
"Para sa akin, sila 'yung pinakamahirap na kalaban eh," Sangalang added.
"Good game, plan talaga namin ilimit sila, 'yung key players nila. Depensa talaga ang magpapanalo sa kanila, No. 1 sila sa scoring. Kami umaasa lang kami sa depensa namin."
(For us, they are the toughest opponent we've faced... Good game, it was our plan to limit their key players. Defense is what will be key to winning, they're the No. 1 team in scoring. So we are relying on our defense.")
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
