Ateneo de Manila University has been in Tel Aviv, Israel for the past week, setting up camp there in preparation for the upcoming UAAP Season 85 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
But the Blue Eagles are there not to have a bunch of tune-ups. The main goal of head coach Tab Baldwin in Israel is to build the Blue Eagles from scratch.
“We only have a couple of games. We are going there to flesh out our system even more. We need more offensive attacks and defensive sophistication,” said Baldwin.
Ateneo will be figuring in two games against two Division 2 Israeli teams.
The Blue Eagles take on Ramat HaSharon on the latter’s home floor on Saturday (September 3) at 9:00 PM (Manila time). Two days later, they face Elitzur Eito Ashkelon at Zysman Arena on Monday at 9:00 PM as well.
Both games will air live on SMART Sports’ Facebook page.
Prior to heading to Israel, Ateneo only has four games under their belt — three games in the World University Basketball Series in Tokyo and a tune-up against East Asia Super League squad Bay Area.
This time around, Baldwin only has one goal — just to be better.
“Just got to get a lot better. We have had such a disruptive buildup in June and July because of injuries. Ange [Kouame] just came back, Dave [Ildefonso] has only been back a couple of weeks. Same with Matthew Daves,” the decorated head coach said.
“We don’t have settled rosters and combinations that are used to working together. We have to get better and time is running.”
Once they come back, Baldwin looks to rev up the team’s preparations.
“When we come back, we expect to play a lot of games.”
