MICHAEL Phillips has been one of the pleasant surprises for La Salle this season that even in a loss, he never fails to gain more fans.
Count Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin among them.
"He has tremendous work ethic and his energy level is extremely high. He's very athletic, cut, long arms, and he pursues the ball every time," he remarked on the heels of the Green Archers' 74-57 loss to the Blue Eagles.
Phillips kept La Salle afloat with his 13 points and 10 rebounds in the game as he put his Ateneo counterpart Ange Kouame to work in this rivalry game on Saturday.
Baldwin even went as far as noting that if Phillips learns how to be wiser on defense and put all of his athletic gifts altogether, there's no doubt that he can be like one of the best rebounders in NBA history.
"When you have those attributes, if he ever really learns how to read where rebounds are going to go, he can be a Rodman-esque rebounder with the way that he pursues the ball and his physical attributes. So a lot of credit to him," the former national coach attested.
La Salle coach Derick Pumaren also sees it the same way, although he shared that as good as the 6-foot-8 Phillips has been through the first four games, he's just 19 and still has a lot more to learn.
"Michael will be giving us that intensity that we need, that spark that we need especially on the boards," he said. "But because of us probably making a lot of mistakes, he got tired, too, at medyo nawala noong second half. But he still gave us that boards na kailangan namin."
Phillips and the rest of the Green Archers will be aiming to bounce back on Tuesday against University of Santo Tomas.
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