More Efficiency Coming: William Navarro To Fill More Voids in Season 83

William Navarro may not have the fancy stat lines that Angelo Kouame or Thirdy Ravena had last season. He may not have that many highlights during the entire Season 82 of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) but still, he has proven that he has done his job in a season that saw the Blue Eagles complete a rare clean sweep of the entire basketball tournament. 

If there were a few instances where the defending champions came close to absorbing a rare defeat and yet they came out victorious, it was because of William Navarro's ability to do things that cannot be seen or appreciated in the box score. Efficiency. The ability to do the intangibles. Those are the things that made Navarro one of Coach Tab Baldwin's favorite players. 

And if there's one thing we've learned from last year, it's that Navarro will do everything and will take every hit his body can for the benefit of the team. Unfortunately, he was hit with an elbow to the head which made him miss a few games. Fortunately, he was able to come back in the latter part of the season en route to helping Ateneo win their third straight championships in four Finals appearances. 

Ateneo was without Jolo Mendoza and Raffy Verano last season due to academic ineligibility which meant Navarro has to fill in the void that was left by Verano.  And that's something that Navarro has done with an efficiency that Baldwin loves so much from the player. 

In another championship-winning season last year, Navarro normed seven points, five rebounds, close to two assists, and a block during Ateneo's 14-0 run in the double-round elimination. But more than the numbers he put up last year, his primary role was to contain the likes of Bright Akhuetie and Soulemane Chabi-Yo- a role he did with absolute efficiency. That alone made life a bit easier for Kouame and the rest of the Blue Eagles. 

Heading into Season 83 where the Blue Eagles are still tipped to win it all again, William Navarro will be filling more voids as Ateneo will be without Thirdy Ravena and Isaac Go. While there's no word yet as to whether or not Raffy Verano will suit up this year as he wasn't around Ateneo swept the UAAP-National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Challenge of the Philippine Collegiate Champions' League (PCCL) last month, we can expect the efficient boy in Navarro step up anew.

After all, it's what he does best. And he does it with efficiency. Total efficiency. 

Photo is from HumbleBola