Nash Racela (left) and Tab Baldwin. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net, FIBA.com
Far Eastern University coach Nash Racela sees no problem with Tab Baldwin’s appointment as the new head mentor for Ateneo.
With the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines (BCAP) issue surrounding Baldwin’s hiring, he compared the situation to the likes of Ateneo women’s volleyball coach Tai Bundit and FEU football mentor Kim Chul Su, foreign mentors who both steered their respective squads to UAAP titles.
“You have a Thai coach in volleyball and a Korean coach in football. I don’t think there should be a difference in basketball,” Racela said on Thursday.
BCAP has opposed hiring foreigners as head coaches in the past, taking several cases to court.
‘Welcome to our world’
Racela knows the high expectations Baldwin is facings, especially with Ateneo failing to nab the title for the third straight year.
“I told him the other day that Ateneo expects you to win a championship on your first year. It’s a challenge for him,” said Racela, who works alongside the American-Kiwi in the national team and TNT in the PBA.
But the soft-spoken mentor believes that the entry of Baldwin in the Blue Eagles’ nest would definitely be a big boost to the school’s basketball program.
“He’s a disciplinarian. His experience in coaching would be big. That’s something that I think the Ateneans are banking on,” he said, while welcoming Baldwin to the wild world of collegiate basketball.
“I just told him, ‘Welcome to our world.'”