Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin during a game against La Salle inthe UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin preached patience after the Blue Eagles dropped to 0-3 to start the UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball tournament.
The Blue Eagles are having their worst start in a decade—an unprecedented situation under Baldwin— following a 74-61 loss to archrival and defending champion La Salle in front of 12,478 fans on Sunday evening at Mall of Asia Arena.
The four-time UAAP champion coach is taking their winless start in stride.
“You have to be patient with the process. You invest too much time into something you know will pay dividends and just don’t know when it will pay dividends,” Baldwin told reporters.
Baldwin admitted their offense against La Salle “kind of got stagnant” amid a promising start in the first period
READ: UAAP: La Salle remains unbeaten, sends Ateneo to 0-3 start
“This team hasn’t had a good third quarter yet. So it’s something we’ve got to get into the psychology of that, cause it isn’t the ability, it isn’t the tactics. For some reason, we even came out, which you never see an Ateneo team do, is they came out with five minutes on the clock, so that they could warm up and cheer you, you’re still out there. We’re trying to get that halftime warm-up to get that mentality back. So we’re still searching,” the American-Kiwi coach said.
“But I was proud of the guys that they rallied In the fourth and didn’t let it get away to something embarrassing. In spite of the effort, sometimes you just get judged on the score. You were able to get back from 20, and you get where it was in the end, in competitive possessions. That’s what we want. So there’s positives to take away from this. And we go from there,” he added.
Baldwin lauded Shawn Tuano after stepping up with 18 points on an 8-of-14 shooting but he hopes to see consistency from the likes of Andrew Bongo and Josh Lazaro, who was limited to just six points and seven rebounds after averaging 14.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in their first two games.
“[Shawn Tuano’s] just a good player that’s getting better with experience. He should have flashed this last year, and this year his role is more significant and he can score,” Baldwin said. “I’d like to see what he’s doing, but we want to see it consistently. We want to see Josh Lazaro repeat what he did in the last game. We want to see Drew Bongo get going because these guys have offensive capabilities. And until these guys start being consistent, it’s going to be tough on Jared because the defenses are going to focus on him because they know his skill set. And until other players get the defensive attention off of Jared to some degree, it’s going to cause problems for the entirety of our offense.”
READ: UAAP: UST ends 17-game losing streak to Ateneo with big win
“I have confidence in him. Josh has had a good game. Tonight, Sean [Quitevis] had a good game. [Kristian Porter] showed a little bit in the last game and a little bit tonight. So, step by step, they’re finding their way.”
Baldwin is also hoping for Chris Koon to come back from an ankle injury he sustained in the opening game against University of the Philippines.
“That extra body, that extra veteran minutes will pay dividends for us,” he said.
Ateneo tries to finally barge into the win column against Adamson (2-1) on Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“It just doesn’t look very good right now, it’s awful at 0-3, but you know we just believe that now we’ve got that stretch of the schedule out of the way we’ve got a week to prepare for Adamson, so we have to do a really good job because Adamson showed off what they’re capable of,” Baldwin said.