John Barba emerged as the NCAA scoring leader at the end of the first round after he averaged 19.78 points per game.
While an individual award may be a possibility for Barba if his performance remains consistent, the Lyceum of the Philippines University veteran said he will just continue what needs to be done as the Pirates continue their campaign.
"Para sa akin naman, no pressure kasi ginagawa ko lang 'yung trabaho. Naglalaro lang ako ng basketball," he said.
[For me, there's no pressure. I'm just doing the job. I'm just playing basketball.]
Getting an individual award is not new for Barba.
Back in 2019, Barba got the top individual honors in the NCAA juniors basketball tournament as he was named the Most Valuable Player while representing the Junior Pirates.
Now, Barba would rather get the win for the Intramuros-based squad.
"Hindi naman sa akin importante ang individual award. Ang importante sa akin is manalo kami and makapasok kami ng final four kasi lahat ng teammates ko magbe-benefit, hindi lang ako."
[Individual awards are not important to me. What's important is we win and we make it to the Final Four because all of my teammates benefit from that, not just me.]
Barba is also looking forward to LPU's second round campaign, especially with the return of teammates JM Bravo and Kyle Versoza from injury.
"Every game naman kasi lahat nagtutulong-tulong, iba-iba ang pumuputok sa amin. Ine-expect namin na next game kumpleto na kaming lahat so malalaro na talaga namin ang laro ng LPU na nawala samin nung first round."
[Every game, we all help each other. Different guys are able to explode for us. We're expecting to be complete next game so we can finally play the LPU way that we weren't able to in the first round.]
LPU will play San Beda University next on Tuesday.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
