ON THE WINGS OF RELIEF
Ateneo and Tab Baldwin are on an unfamiliar UAAP men’s basketball tournament grounds.
Consistent title threats under Baldwin since 2016, the Blue Eagles haven’t missed the Final Four in that span. But now, more than ever, Ateneo is hard-pressed to keep that string going.
“Nobody’s going to hide the fact that it was a horrendous, difficult first round,” Baldwin said after going 1-6 and seemingly being written off that early. “Not all of our play was horrendous, but who doesn’t focus on results? So we try not to focus entirely on results.”
The Eagles, though, have some good results to show in the second round after they assembled their first winning streak of Season 87 over the weekend following a 67-64 nipping of University of Santo Tomas (UST).
But would it be enough to put them in Final Four discussions, with Ateneo tied for fifth at 3-6 and the Growling Tigers very vulnerable at fourth with a 4-6 mark?
“It does take some of the pressure off. It does relieve things a bit,” Baldwin said.
Ateneo’s bid for a third straight victory will go through a much more severe test. Instead of aiming for that trifecta against Adamson on Wednesday, the Eagles will have to do so against powerhouse rival La Salle on Saturday. Wednesday’s games, which also features University of the Philippines battling University of the East, were rescheduled due to inclement weather.
“We’re really trying to mature a lot of younger players, a lot of players that lack significant experience,” Baldwin said. “This group of guys had to replace a lot of players that were expected to be here this season. It has to be about [the] growth [of the young ones]. Nobody likes to give results away.”
Losing its core
Ateneo practically lost its core after last season, with eight players injured or leaving before the biggest shock of all came when Mason Amos decided to take his act to bitter rival La Salle.
And so Baldwin the perfectionist is learning to celebrate the small improvements that his crew is showing this season.
“It’s always kind of a joyous occasion when we get a result. In other years, we would have been very circumspect about enjoying our results because we would have been focused on loftier goals,” he explained.
“This year, we don’t want to get too carried away when we get a result.”
Ateneo scored a 60-51 victory over Adamson in the first round, a result that put an end to a 0-3 start for the Eagles, their worst under Baldwin and a mark they haven’t had the previous 11 seasons.
The Eagles have a chance for a season sweep over the Falcons, who will be coming into the contest still licking the wounds of a 70-45 gut-punch dealt by defending champion La Salle last week.
“These guys deserve to enjoy them. Because trust me, in practice, the focus is going to be again on maturation and evolution and development with a view to winning more games,” he said. “But more importantly, to season players for whatever future they have at Ateneo, whatever future they have in basketball.”
