NCAA Juniors MVP Gozum is newest UP Maroon

NCAA Season 93 Juniors MVP Will Gozum is the newest bright talent to join the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons.

The former Mapua Red Robin will be joining a UP team that is now a legitimate contender next season – a formidable squad that will feature prized acquisition Bright Akhuetie, UAAP Season 80 Seniors Rookie of the Year Juan Gomez de Liano, and returning stalwarts Paul Desiderio, Jun Manzo, and Javier Gomez de Liano.

UP has been an aggressive recruiter the past two years, successfully attracting top-flight talent from the high school ranks.

As early as December last year, UP was reported to be the frontrunner for the services of the 6-foot-6 Gozum, who averaged 13.2 points, 10 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks in his final year with Mapua.

Sources privy to the acquisition revealed that the prized recruit finally committed to play for the Maroons last week, ending months of speculation as to where the heavily-recruited Gozum would play college ball.

UP has been an aggressive recruiter the past two years, successfully attracting top-flight talent from the high school ranks. The Gozum acquisition is the latest in a series of surprising coups by the championship-starved Maroons, who last won the UAAP Seniors basketball championship over three decades ago in 1986.

Gozum adds size to the feisty but undersized Maroons, whose top rebounders were Ibrahim Outtara and Paul Desiderio, who averaged 11 and six rebounds per game, respectively.

The forward is also expected to bolster the interior defense of UP, which had only two players finish the season averaging more than one block per game: Outtara and forward Noah Webb.