During the UAAP Season 86 Collegiate Basketball press conference, Ateneo de Manila University head coach Tab Baldwin stated that his team would be “characterized more by growth than by experience.”
Despite being the reigning champions, the Blue Eagles lost four of their five usual starters back in Season 85 when they defeated the University of the Philippines in the best-of-three Finals.
Ateneo bid farewell to Ange Kouame, BJ Andrade, and Dave Ildefonso after they exhausted their playing years in the country’s premier collegiate league.
The Blue Eagles also saw sophomore point guard Forthsky Padrigao leave the school after being placed on “academic probation” and being involved in sexual abuse allegations. He is now part of the University of Santo Tomas’ team for Season 87.
All of a sudden, Ateneo has a young team, with nine of its 16 players in their first year of playing in the UAAP.
Growing pains have emerged as the Blue Eagles opened the tournament with a 1-2 record, their first time during the Baldwin era.
Ateneo lost its opener to National University, 64-77, before bouncing back in a big way against arch-rival De La Salle University, winning 77-72.
The Blue Eagles gained control early in their game against Adamson University last Saturday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, cruising to a 19-point first-half lead.
But the Soaring Falcons fought back and forced overtime before the buzzer-beater off-the-bank triple of birthday boy Vince Magbuhos broke Ateneo’s heart, 74-71.
“Tough loss. It was a game that we talked about being complacent coming off the La Salle game, and we started out well obviously, a good first quarter,” said Baldwin.
“But I think Adamson really responded, that kinda reminded me of NU. They got physical, they got tough. More than just adversarial, they were really in our face. They were really challenging us physically, and it shook us off.”
With nine rookies on his team, Baldwin said that the Blue Eagles are still searching for their identity and culture.
Leading the way for Ateneo’s newcomers are highly-touted Mason Amos and Nigerian big man Joseph Obasa.
Rounding out the rookies are Andrew Bongo, Jared Brown, Raffy Celis, Ian Espinosa, Kyle Gamber, Lebron Nieto, and Shawn Tuano.
“We better figure some things out about how important it is to be composed, how important it is to be mentally and physically tough as we were against La Salle,” said Baldwin, who is in his seventh season.
“You can’t do it in one game and say that’s who you are. That’s just a lie. You’ve got to do it over and over, and for three and a half quarters today, we weren’t.”
Baldwin is not saying these things just because of their shock loss to Adamson. The lack of culture in the Blue Eagles’ dugout has been a recurring problem in this early part of the season.
Still, the veteran tactician also acknowledges that identity and culture are not formed instantly and that it takes a process to build them.
“I think that we’re talking about the central character of a basketball team, and a lot of things come into play,” shared the American-Kiwi coach.
“What is your culture? I think right now we haven’t established that. What is the buy-in from the players? There are so many new players – it’s not that they’re reluctant to buy in, but there’s an actual process you have to go through where you have to say this is what I want, this is what I want to be, this is who I want to be in the context of the team,” he continued.
“You have to have a culture, and right now we’re still trying to create that, embed that, and then cement that. The process doesn’t happen very quickly, and with as many new players as we have, it is a difficult process.”
Regardless of the process of integrating the new players and building a culture, Baldwin, a four-time UAAP champion and a proven winner wherever he goes, expresses his disappointment with the start of their title defense bid.
“Congratulations to Adamson, they literally took this game by the scruff of the neck and won. I think we lost it, and I’m not happy about that. Disappointed. Very disappointed.”
