For the last three years, the Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles have been the gold standard in Philippine collegiate basketball.
Under the watch of Tab Baldwin, the Blue Eagles finished with silver three years ago. They then conquered the UAAP Men’s Basketball tournament over the last two years.
But for them to capture that elusive three-peat and leave a legacy, team captain Mike Nieto shared that the Blue Eagles must be at their best all the times.
“We just want to be the best versions of ourselves – na kung nakita kami ng mga tao, we’re not just relying on two to three players. We’re relying on the first to the sixteenth player,” shared Nieto.
“Ganun kaganda yung sistema ni coach Tab [Baldwin].”
Still, Baldwin knows that the journey just gets tougher.
Take for instance their opening game against the Adamson Soaring Falcons. The Blue Eagles had a lead as high as 22 points before Valandre Chauca decided to start a storm.
Adamson was able to cut the lead down to just five points.
“Well, we knew it was going to be tough. That’s the last team that I really wanted to see in the first game. Had my deja vu moments in the second half,” recalled Baldwin, as they lost to Adamson on opening day last season.
Fortunately, the Blue Eagles found a higher gear to clip the Soaring Falcons, 70-52.
“I think we earned that win with really hard work,” shared Baldwin. “Where we go from here, hopefully, we settle down a little bit. Offensively, play with a little bit more composure and you know, get that game under our belt against a really tough team with our defense.
“And our defense can now learn from that. We can break down the video, we can say ‘This is where we failed in our principles, and this is where we’re going to have to improve against La Salle’, and get better,” he continued.
Mike Nieto added, “Yung first to sixteenth man namin, pare-pareho lang. Yun ang goal namin. Sinasabi nga ni coach Tab na gusto lang niya makitang different is yung face and number sa jersey.”
