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Racela not surprised to see rookies from FEU shine in PBA

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Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA, Philippines – Very few people were surprised when Mac Belo quickly established himself as a primetime player for the Blackwater Elite. After all, he was generally regarded as the most PBA-ready of all the rookies in the 2016 Draft.Belo had 17 points and nine rebounds in his debut for the Elite, a 94-87 win over the Phoenix Fuel Masters. In his second game, he scored 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, sparking Blackwater&#x27;s 86-84 win over the Meralco Bolts.The former Far Eastern University (FEU) forward was promptly named the PBA Player of the Week. His superb play was of no surprise to his collegiate coach, Nash Racela. In fact, it&#x27;s fair to say that Racela expected Belo to be an impact player immediately.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li>READ: <a href="http://sports.abs-cbn.com/basketball/news/2016/11/28/rr-pogoy-takes-clutch-gene-pros-18581">RR Pogoy takes his clutch gene to the pros</a></li></ul>&quot;Hindi nakakagulat, because that&#x27;s how he played for us. He&#x27;ll let others do their thing first, then &#x27;pag nakita niya na hindi nagwo-work, he&#x27;ll start doing his thing in the second half,&quot; Racela said of Belo, who was the Finals MVP when FEU won the UAAP Season 78 title over University of Santo Tomas. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Proud of our FEU boys. Prepare to work harder! Charge!! 🐂 <a href="https://t.co/PW3TO9e5JP">pic.twitter.com/PW3TO9e5JP</a>— Nash Racela (@scwtN) <a href="https://twitter.com/scwtN/status/792663059764346881">October 30, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" src="~//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>What fewer people probably expected is that Belo&#x27;s former FEU teammates have quickly shone for their respective PBA teams as well.Mike Tolomia was solid in his debut for Rain or Shine, tallying 11 points and four rebounds in just under 16 minutes, while Russel Escoto had six points and four rebounds in his first game for Mahindra.Roger Pogoy, who was crucial in FEU&#x27;s run to the UAAP title last year, was a major factor in TNT&#x27;s come-from-behind win over Ginebra last Sunday, making the defensive stop on LA Tenorio to prevent the point guard from hitting the go-ahead jump shot, then grabbing a huge offensive rebound in the dying seconds.Perhaps most surprising was Carl Bryan Cruz, who was taken by Alaska in the draft for Gilas cadets. Almost an afterthought against his more heralded FEU teammates, Cruz showed he was no slouch as he scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter of the Aces&#x27; 97-99 overtime loss to NLEX.The one person not shocked to see the FEU players perform the way they do is Racela. &quot;Not at all, not at all (surprised),&quot; the coach said in a matter-of-fact tone. &quot;They&#x27;re all playing really well, and representing the FEU program.&quot;Racela pointed out that his former players – not just Belo – are playing pretty much the way they did back when they were in college. Pogoy, in particular, was a top-notch defender for FEU even before he became a solid three-point shooter.&quot;Nilalaro lang nila &#x27;yung laro nila in college. And normally, when you&#x27;re a rookie, &#x27;yun ang alinlanganmo sa start eh – paano ba ako magf-fit in?&quot; Racela explained.&quot;But when you watch all of them, parang wala lang. How they played in college, how they played in the D-League – ganoon lang ang ginagawa nila ngayon. Which is really good, dahil right away, they&#x27;re making an impact,&quot; he added.Racela, who is set to take over as head coach of TNT once the UAAP season is done, said the credit for his former players&#x27; quick success goes both ways.&quot;Of course, they&#x27;re all part of the program, and I&#x27;m sure they all know that it helped them, and that&#x27;s why they&#x27;re playing that way,&quot; he said. &quot;Siguro, both ways – natulungan nila kami, natulungan namin sila.&quot;&quot;Ang pinaka-importante right now, is they are reaping the benefits,&quot; he stressed.Racela, however, does not expect to have any sort of advantage over his former players when the TNT KaTropa eventually face them in the on-going All-Filipino Cup.&quot;Mahirap eh,&quot; he said. &quot;Ibang tao na sila ngayon. Siguro, ipapabantay na lang natin si Roger kay Mac, kay Russel.&quot; For more sports coverage, visit the <a href="http://sports.abs-cbn.com/" target="_blank">ABS-CBN Sports website</a>.

Very few people were surprised when Mac Belo quickly established himself as a prime time player for the Blackwater Elite. After all, he was generally regarded as the most PBA-ready of all the rookies in the 2016 Draft.

Very few people were surprised when Mac Belo quickly established himself as a prime time player for the Blackwater Elite. After all, he was generally regarded as the most PBA-ready of all the rookies in the 2016 Draft.

Racela not surprised to see rookies from FEU shine in PBA

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Racela not surprised to see rookies from FEU shine in PBA

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published November 29, 2016 12:42 AM PHT

Read More:

PBA

UAAP

FEU Tamaraws

Nash Racela

Mac Belo

Mike Tolomia

Roger Pogoy

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