Ok so first I'm going to tell you a short background of Mark Barroca's Basketball Career.
Mark Andy Barroca Graduated from the Far Eastern University (FEU) Where he played for 2 season. After Graduating from college he was asked to join the Smart Gilas headed by former Barako Bull Consultant Rajko Toroman.
After his stint in Gilas, He joined the 2011 PBA Draft and was picked by the Shopinas Clickers (Now Air21) but then was traded immediately to B-meg (Now San Mig Super Coffee Mixers).
At First he was just a reliever for Josh Urbiztondo playing just a few minutes off the bench. He was completely a unknown force in the Bmeg bench. They won a championship in the 2011 Comissioner's cup with Denzel Bowles as their Import.
Still there were no Spotlight for Barroca..
But everything changed after the 2011 season, where Bmeg traded Josh Urbiztondo to Barako Bull, Everyone was shocked why did Bmeg traded their Shooting Point Guard. Coach tim said it is part of their rebuilding program and just to trust the decisions. Many said that Mark will have a hard time on replacing Urbiztondo's shoes for he was just a reliever at the bench.
At first Barroca just started to play his game wasn't that sparky but he is now earning quality minutes of the bench.
Little the fans know that this guy will be one of the future of their team.
Bmeg changed it's name to San Mig Coffee mixers. With the change of the name, Barroca recieved it's monicker and was called "The Coffee Prince".
After the change of name, Barroca's numbers grew.
During his B-meg days he averages: 5.4 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.1 ASP
And after just one season of the San Mig Coffee Mixers he now averages: 8.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 3.5 APG
Barroca became one of the main man of the San Mig Coffee Mixers and he was even compared to the late Johnny Abbarientos who is right now one of the Assistant coach of Tim Cone. Basketball Fans not just the San mig coffee fans started to love Barroca for everytime the San mig coffee needs a sparkplug, he's always there to provide that much needed spark.
His name even grew during this 2014 Philippine Cup season especially at the start of the 2nd round. San mig coffee struggled at the 1st round of this season and got a standing of the 8th spot at the end of the 1st round.
But then Barroca and the San mig coffee mixers started to run in the 2nd round, they beat the top teams like ginebra, petron and rain or shine. And with every game, Mark's been always the man of the moment.
And now they've reached playoffs and made it into the Semi-finals which they face the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. and during the 1st 3 games of the series Barroca has been a huge revelation for the San Mig Coffee Squad.
In the 1st game he got no score because Ginebra made a great adjustment for him not until the last 22.2 seconds of the game. Barroca was able to steal the inbound pass of Baracael and able to shoot the game winning shot in just one posession.
In the 2nd game they loss a big margin to Ginebra led by Slaughter and Aguilar.
But in the 3rd game, Barroca Bounced back even scored his career high 25-points plus 8 rebounds and 5 steals and defeated the Ginebra
San mig Coffee now has a 2-1 advantage against ginebra.
You see? how can you not love this guy? He brings a lot of energy in the court and his heart for the game is what making him excell in this game. Yes Mark Barroca is just a Small player but he can go toe-to-toe with the big men. Why? it's because of his BIG heart, this guy wants to win he don't care about the pain he's getting, he don't care about the mismatches of the game, he just care about his game and how he can contribute for the team.
I really never thought that Mark Barroca will be a huge impact in the PBA but then like they say; Looks can be deceiving. With how Barroca's playing today, I am pretty sure in the future he will be a superstar and end up being a Hall of Famer if he keeps up his good performance during his Basketball career
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