San Miguel Beer’s Arwind Santos was named Top Performer of the Eliminations/Quarterfinals of the 2010-11 Philippine Cup by the PBA Press Corps recently.

This was after the former FEU star forward topped the statistical points standings after the end of the quarterfinals last December 25 with his 34.7 SPs average.

Santos narrowly defeated Alaska’s Joe Devance (34.5), Talk ‘N Text’s Harvey Carey (34.4) and
SMB teammate Jay Washington for the recognition, handed out only for the second time by
sportswriters regularly covering the PBA beat.

Santos and Carey would have shared the award, both having accumulated 401 statistical points totals and 120 won-game bonus SPs. But Carey slid to No. 3 as a result of a flagrant foul-penalty one he incurred in their quarterfinal game which is equivalent to minus-5 SPs.

With their teams currently in the thick of things in the Final 4, Santos, Carey and Washington will likely figure it out for the Best Player of the Conference award to be given out in Game 4 of the best-of-seven Finals.

In the ongoing semifinals, Washington seems to be making the biggest case for BPC honors after currently averaging 20.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 shotblocks in the Beermen’s series against Barangay Ginebra.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 Annual Draft was also named or shared Best Player of the Game honors in San Miguel Beer’s three wins over the Kings so far in the series.

The Beermen, who are looking to end a nine-year all-Filipino title drought, is a win away from
entering the Finals.

In contrast, the performances of Carey and Santos have a taken a dip in the semifinals.

After norming 12.5 points, a league conference-best 12.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists from the
eliminations to the quarterfinals, the Talk ‘N Text power forward is averaging only 5.2 points,
7.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in their best-of-seven semifinal series against defending champion
B-Meg Derby Ace which the Tropang Texters lead, 3-2.

Santos, on the other hand, is averaging only 10.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 steal in the semis, after putting up norms of 16.6 points and 9.1 rebounds prior to the Final 4 wars.

Statistics comprise 30 percent of the criteria in the selection of the Best Player of the
Conference. Votes from the media (30%), players (25%), Solar TV (10%) and the PBA Commissioner’s Office (5%) comprise the rest of the criteria in the balloting.

The Top 5 players in average SPs up to the end of the semifinals will be named as official
candidates for the BPC award.

Based on existing rules, in case a team makes it to the Finals but does not have a player in the
Top 5 in average SPs, its top-ranked player in the overall standings will be automatically included as an official candidate for BPC.