It’s a rookie-laden team, but Tab Baldwin himself has already vouched for this batch of Ateneo Blue Eagles heading into UAAP Season 87.
When UAAP Season 87 opens, we’ll be witnessing a rookie-laden Ateneo team. In Tab Baldwin’s words, “half a team” will be first timers including high school studs Jared Bahay and Kris Porter.
It’s the start of the Blue Eagles’ inevitable rebuild after an early Final Four exit in UAAP Season 86. Off to the pros are do-it-all forward Kai Ballungay, and senior guard Jared Brown, while potential centerpiece Mason Amos moved to rival La Salle last July.
Sophomore guard LeBron Nieto was also sidelined by a partial ACL tear recently.
Yet that hasn’t demoralized this Ateneo team. Even Baldwin, with all his championships, was left impressed by this group.
“Of all the teams I’ve had, this is probably the hungriest team I’ve seen. And I think that’s because there’s so much talk about them being underdogs and this is a rebuilding year,” Baldwin said during the UAAP Season 87 basketball press conference in Cubao.
“There’s a sort of a generic lack of respect for this team. Or the kind of respect they would want anyway, because they work as hard as any team ever.”
But Baldwin was quick to temper his expectations. Being a rookie-laden team, UAAP Season 87 will be a campaign full of growing pains. They’re parading top high-schoolers, yes, but the collegiate game is a different beast.
From a higher level of play, to the physicality, it’s something that will warrant a learning curve.
“But with their youth, they’re going to have good patches and bad patches. And we want to grow as the season goes along to be performing more consistently. But who knows? Maybe they’ll come out of the gates flying. Or maybe they’ll come out flat. That’s the problem with young teams,” he said.
Baldwin continues that they will be a “success and failure committee”. Only leadership from seniors Chris Koon and captain Sean Quitevis will be constant this season, he said.
“And I think on any given game, any given day, you might see Andrew Bongo play really well. You might see [Shawn] Tuano play well. You might see Chris Koon [play well]. There’s a whole list of likely candidates. And they can all have off-games as well. None of them are superstars,” he explains.
It’s also a transition for Baldwin, who’s only missed the UAAP Finals once in his eight-year career. Just two years ago, the American-Kiwi mentor was still guiding a championship level team in Katipunan.
But going from champion to underdog isn’t something he’s dwelling on.
“I don’t really look at things that way. I hear what people say and I try to gauge how that impacts them, because that’s what’s important. But for me, you can win a possession, you can lose a possession,” he said.
“A quarter, a half, and a game. And the goal is just to win more than you lose. That’s never going to change for me. That’s the way it is.”
Special trips
Ateneo went on overseas trips between June and August to Australia and Taiwan, which proved to be timely stepping stones.
The Blue Eagles dropped close games against NBL1 teams in Australia, while they went undefeated in Taiwan to win the FJCU cup. It’s a stark contrast to early preseason tilts, where they went winless in the PinoyLiga Collegiate Cup and FilOil EcoOil Preseason Cup.
“After we came back from Australia, and I think Australia was…We played better but we didn’t get any wins. We were playing pro teams over there. They were very good. And we hadn’t had any wins up to that point in time in the entire year,” he shared.
Some soul-searching followed after the Australia trip, which coincided with Mason Amos’ controversial departure. But for reasons Baldwin can’t pinpoint, the Blue Eagles “seemed to find another gear” afterwards.
“And winning in Taiwan built some momentum. And it built some belief. And they started to feed on that. And it was almost like they needed to win to understand that winning was okay,” he explained.
“And since then, their performances have gotten better. And now we enter the season, as you said, with a bit of a positive vibe and some momentum.”
Balancing act
Still, Baldwin reiterates that this is a rookie batch. Besides the pressure to mature fast, there’s now the need to balance team and academic commitments. It was unlike the summer, where they were able to focus fully on basketball.
As Baldwin says, players need to handle “course load, practice load, weights, meetings, [and] video sessions.”
“And again, they need another dose of leadership. Hey, this is how you have to monitor your day. This is how you have to manage your time…It’s a real thing. It’s really tough academically and we lost Raffy Celis last year,” said Baldwin, referring to the former Ateneo de Cebu standout.
“Just the academic load was really tough. And so obviously we don’t want that to happen again. But in our program’s history, it does happen some. So we’ve got a whole batch of guys that are going through that now. And that’s a tough thing for them to handle.”
Besides Koon and Quitevis’ leadership, Ateneo has adjusted its schedules to ensure at least two dedicated study days. Tutors are also provided, alongside dedicated study halls. That, alongside mandating them to attend their classes.
“And that’s the best we can do. They have to be self-motivated as an athlete if they want to become a great player. And they have to be self-motivated as a student if they want to honor and merit their degree,” he said.
Simply put, Ateneo is pulling out all the stops to take care of its young team. Now, it will be up to them to build on their preseason strides as UAAP Season 87 opens.
Will they be a championship team? Maybe in the future.
But will they be contenders this season? We can’t count them out either.
“LeBron [Nieto] is out. But yeah, all the other first-year guys [will be ready for opening day],” said Baldwin.
Banner Image courtesy of the UAAP Season 87 Media Team.