The Ateneo Blue Eagles made history once more on Saturday evening.
After taking Game One of the UAAP Season 82 Finals with an impressive 91-77 clinic against University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo went up to 15-0 — the first-ever men’s basketball team to do so in the league.
But for Tab Baldwin, he believes that the streak should have no bearing or pressure for his wards. Their main focus against UST was to go 1-0 and be on the verge of a three-peat.
“We just want to be 1-0 from here. We don’t really care what’s going on in the past. Each of those games was won because we took those games seriously and tried to play our best game in that game. We have one game left,” the grizzled tactician shared.
“Whatever people want to say after that game is up to their perceptions of this team.”
It was a tough one for the Blue Eagles, though, as their last competitive game was back in October 30.
After that game, Baldwin vowed that they “are going to have some fun”. And by ‘fun’, he meant conditioning workouts.
“Our preparation was tough. I told the team, after we finished the elimination round, that I didn’t think we were fit enough,” the American-Kiwi tactician opined.
“As it turns out when you play UST, your fitness is gonna be challenged that’s for sure. We might surprise a lot of people. We did a lot of running, a lot of sprints. A lot of work on our fitness. We needed it tonight, even though we have a deep bench, even though we have confidence up and down the bench. They pumped those legs, man. But I said at the time, I always thought the big break was an advantage, not a disadvantage. I’m a big believer in preparation,” continued Baldwin as, according to sources, the Blue Eagles competed against an NCAA team and a PBA club during that stretch.
“I think if you give me, as a coach, more preparation time, that’s gonna be an advantage for our basketball team.”
The fruits of their workout showed against UST.
Ateneo had 23 fastbreak points in the game compared to just eight for UST. Moreover, both squads had 16 turnovers apiece, but the Blue Eagles converted them into 27 points.
Besides this, Ateneo also out-rebounded UST, 45-39.
“UST makes a big commitment to the offensive boards. I think that the tactics of basketball, and probably a lot of teams sports, are that you have to understand what the opponent gives you and what they’re trying to get from you,” continued Baldwin.
“So any time that any team makes a big commitment to the offensive boards, obviously you have to protect your glass, but it does create opportunities in transition. So we were aware of that. And that was part of what we talked about before the game.”
Come Wednesday, Baldwin and the Blue Eagles will have the same mindset.
“We understand that this game on Wednesday is a chance to finish the season. And then we’ll let all of you talk about what you think about the team, what you think of whatever is related to our team. Believe me, we just want to play this game on Wednesday well, play it really well. Win the game and whatever comes with that, comes with that,” he vowed.
“We don’t want our focus on anything else, especially any talk about records or anything like that. Let’s just play this game on Wednesday and do the best we can.”
