Hot Maroons not taking struggling Eagles lightly
University of the Philippines coach Goldwin Monteverde is well aware of how hard the Fighting Maroons’ final stretch in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball elimination round would be.
And that torturous route starts with a neighbor and rival.
“After tonight, all our eyes and attention will be on Ateneo,” Monteverde said on Sunday night following State U’s 70-65 win over Adamson at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We’ll watch this game, see what we can fix, and then we’ll prepare for Ateneo. We’ll take it one game at a time and prepare.”
The last time both Katipunan-based squads faced off, the defending champions zoomed past the Blue Eagles, 83-69, in first-round action.
Since then, Ateneo has been on a turbulent 1-5 flight.
Assured
The Maroons? Well, they went on a commanding 6-1 record since then, losing only to Season 87 Finals rival La Salle to end their first-round run.
Sitting at a comfortable 9-3 slate as the second seed with an assured ticket to the Final Four, Monteverde knows not to take coach Tab Baldwin and company for granted.
Not when the Blue Eagles are eager to bounce back after losing to University of Santo Tomas last Saturday, 67-59.
“There’s still a lot of things for us to improve on in both ends. We have that Ateneo game for this second round and for sure, when we enter the Final Four, the competition will be tougher.”
Not content
“Those number of wins, we need those, but then what’s also important is playing every game the right way.”
Aside from Monteverde, Gerry Abadiano is also refusing to take the 5-6 Ateneo easy.
“In our last two games, we know it’ll be hard. It really won’t be easy,” Abadiano said, fresh off a 16-point outing against the Soaring Falcons. “We need to face our next game properly. We can’t be content.”
UP takes on Ateneo at 4:30 pm on Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena, following the curtain raiser between playoff-chasing squads La Salle (6-5) and Soaring Falcons (5-7), who both lost on Sunday.
