ANY team that has sank into the abyss early in its campaign would have easily folded. Not Ateneo.
The Blue Eagles nipped the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers 67-64 last Saturday and improved their card to 3-6 in the 87th UAAP basketball tournament.
Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin, however, downplayed his wards’ rare winning run in the tilt where they groped for form in the first-round with a 1-6 slate.
“Seriously? You know, when you say coach, you infer coach Baldwin, right? And then you use the word satisfied. Those two things rarely go together,” Baldwin said. “So, no, we’re not satisfied. We like the results. The coaches will get together for a meal now and we’ll be happy. We’ll be joyous. But the players will go their own way and have a great night, I’m sure and they deserve that.
“But, you know, in a New York minute, we’ll be focused on our problems and areas that need improvement and players that need attention for the players that didn’t play for reasons they didn’t play, they need attention, players that did play and didn’t get the job done to our satisfaction. They need attention and that’s where our coaches’ attention will go,” he added.
Andrew Bongo showed the way for the Katipunan-based five with 14 points and seven rebounds while Ian Espinosa chipped in 11 markers, six boards, and two assists.
Chris Koon also had 10 and four while Shawn Tuano added 10 points for the Eagles.
What made Ateneo’s stunning triumph against UST was they played at the Tigers’ home court before a wild and roaring crowd–the Quadricentennial Pavilion.
“I don’t know when the last time in the UAAP was you had to play a road game and of course, I’m used to that throughout my career. Most of the leagues I coached in were home and away, but never here and it was a mystery to us why that happened,” Baldwin said. “But it did, and what it required of us was to really gut it out.
“I think this was one of the gutsiest wins we’ve had, you know, in a few years.”
The Eagles will shoot for their third victory in a row when they clash with the Adamson University Soaring Falcons tomorrow at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
While notching two straight wins should boost Ateneo’s bid for a Final Four berth, Baldwin is convinced his players have their work cut out for them.
“You pop the bubble every time you get a win and some of the pressure goes off. But it kind of depends on what your perspective is and what you’re looking at. We’re trying to achieve some things this season now. Nobody’s going to hide the fact that it was a horrendous, difficult first round. Not all of our play was horrendous. But who doesn’t focus on results?” he posed.
“So, we try not to focus entirely on results. So, it would be a little bit, I guess, exploiting the moment if I said that getting a result all of a sudden makes everything okay. It really doesn’t. It does take some of the pressure off. It does relieve things a bit. But we’re really trying to mature a lot of younger players, a lot of players that lack significant experience.”
