FOUR titles in the last six seasons should be just fine for any UAAP team, right?
For Ateneo, however, failing to win it all anew in the 86th UAAP basketball tournament is a dampener–Blue Eagles coach Tab Baldwin is convinced they should be playing in the Big Dance and seeking crowns.
They are now raring to get that chance next year.
“This has to be a spark for them, which lights a fire, which burns all of us until we put it out with some hardware in the future. We will be reminding one another in the months to come about the pain that we have so that the fire doesn’t go out,” Baldwin said after fourth-ranked Ateneo dropped a 46-57 decision to No. 1 University of the Philippines last Saturday in their Final Four duel.
“Hopefully, it will be part of the process of giving us the motivation and giving us the drive to work our tails off to get back into what we believe.
“You know, (this) shouldn’t be the place we belong and that’s in the finals and ultimately winning championships,” he added.
With key players from their title squad last year in naturalized center Ange Kouame and gunner Dave Ildefonso having finished their playing years, and playmaker Forthsky Padrigao moving to University of Santo Tomas, the Katipunan-based cagers amassed a 7-7 card after the eliminations behind a youthful team.
The Eagles hurdled the Adamson University Soaring Falcons 70-48 six days ago in a knockout game for the last semifinals berth.
Despite their setback to the Fighting Maroons, Baldwin remained upbeat.
“It has been a rollercoaster season for us. But these guys showed a lot of heart. They stood toe to toe with an outstanding basketball team, and we gave ourselves chances, and I don’t think I can ask much more of this team than what they accomplished this year,” Baldwin said.
“A lot of people will look at this season as a season of failure, a season of indifference, but you know, I choose to look at the glass being half full. I’d like to think that this season is a bridge for us. We’ve just come out of an amazing era of Blue Eagle basketball.”
Alas, these cage wars were simply not meant for Ateneo, according to Baldwin, who will pin his hopes on the likes of Kai Ballungay, Jared Brown, Chris Koon, and Mason Amos next year.
“It was a really weird season,” he said. “We battled to be better all the time, to grow, to develop, we battled a lot of injuries. It’s just that kind of season, you know, just sort of a fractured season.”
