Starting the new year in 17th place amid a spate of injuries, FC Bayern Munich needed an anchor if it was going to climb back into the playoffs race in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. A month later, Bayern is very much back in that race after having found its anchor in forward Augustine Rubit, who is Euroleague Basketball's choice as MVP for January.
Rubit supplied regular, efficient offense as Bayern went 4-1 in January and vaulted to 13th place, just two victories from the playoffs places with 13 rounds left to play. He scored between 13 and 23 points in all five January games, making more than 70% of all his shots. He ranked second among all EuroLeague players during the month in both scoring and performance index rating, giving Bayern's offense the stability it needed to make a run for its third consecutive playoffs berth despite having started the season 0-5.