There’s no doubt that Marcus Douthit is indeed what the doctor ordered for the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team’s campaign in the 26th FIBA Asia Championship for Men in Wuhan, China.

As things didn’t work out with former naturalization candidates CJ Giles and Jamal Sampson, SMART-Gilas management never stopped looking for that big man that could man the inside and make the Philippines a real competitive team in the Asian region.

And Douthit came like manna from heaven with his skills and, more importantly, the right attitude that was missing from the previous two candidates.

The former Providence standout has been impressive in his first six games in the London Games qualifier as he led the tournament in scoring (18.6) and rebounds (10.5) per game.

And if there’s one person who’s not surprised at all, it’s head coach Rajko Toroman.

“We understand that the Philippines, without a good big guy, will never do something on FIBA Asia because we’re small. That’s the reason why we got him. He’s a big impact to our team,” said Toroman.

The 30-year old Douthit is also shooting a respectable 61.6 percent from the field (45-of-73) and swatted 11 shots, second to Iran’s Hamed Haddadi who has 19 in the two-round preliminaries.

“He’s very skilled offensively. He’s very clever and very creative for his size and he’s doing a great job,” added Toroman.

Douthit was one major reason why SMART-Gilas ended up No. 2 in Group F behind China going to the quarterfinal round.

source: InterAKTV