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DOING THE LITTLE THINGS
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For Barangay Ginebra San Miguel import Zaccheus Mason, youth should not be taken as a liability in the game of basketball.
On the heels of Ginebra’s 95-82 victory over Meralco last Saturday for the Kings’ second win in the 2014 PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup, the 23-year-old forward showed that even if he’s pitted against an NBA vet in Meralco’s Terrence Williams, he’s capable of towing his team to victory.
The fresh graduate from Ole Miss, who spent four years playing for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mucs, finished with 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field to go with his 19 rebounds in the win.
“How can you complain about his performance? He’s doing everything he needs to as and I’m happy. I hope he gets better and better, and we need him to get better and better,” Ginebra coach Jeffrey Cariaso said of his reinforcement. “I think what’s nice about him is that he’s very mature at a very young age, and I’m happy with his performance.”
Though he’s considered as one of the youngest in this year’s import pool, Mason has proven to his coach that he can adapt to the system and he can hang with those players more experienced than him.
“I think even if he’s a fresh grad, he has played against really good players before. I think once he gets more comfortable with his role and his teammates, then he can easily play his game. And his game is what we want. That’s doing the little things, rebounding, and scoring when he has the opportunities,” Cariaso said.
And “Z”, as he is called here, answers in the affirmative.
“I’m the youngest guy on the team and probably the youngest import, and I just take it day-by-day and continue to get better with my teammates, and take it game-by-game,” he said.
“A lot of these guys have experience, and it’s still tough on me to adjust, but my teammates are behind me so I just try to go out there and enjoy playing basketball.”
Though Mason acknowledges the fact that a number of guys have more impressive resumes than him, he believes that all of them are the same. What will count more is who is willing to do the dirty work for his squad.
“They’re here just like I am. It’s basketball at the end of the day. They have experience over me, but I’ll continue to do the little things. Offensive rebounding, getting extra possessions, blocks, things like that to help this team,” he said. “This is not about individual performances. It’s about us as a team being able to execute the offense, getting stops – it’s what coach preaches us about: the small things. That’s what we want to focus on and that’s what helped us win today.”
Mason is also getting a first-hand look at the triangle system, as Cariaso has instilled the intricate system into Ginebra’s gameplans. Slowly, Mason is getting himself familiar with how things work in the triangle.
“I’m getting pretty comfortable (with our system). Coach is giving us new wrinkles here and there, so I just try to get used to the offense. A lot of us are new to this system, so we’re taking it slow but we’re progressing and it’s starting to show offensively, but our defense got the win for us tonight,” he said.
Mason added that it’s a treat for him to play for the league’s most popular ballclub, saying, “It’s good to play for Ginebra for they have the biggest fanbase and they come out and support us. It makes the organization want to come out and win for our fans. It’s an honor to play for a team with such prestige and I’m just enjoying it, continue to get better everyday.” (RL)
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