‘Farcical’ noise from drums draws Baldwin’s ire

Ateneo consultant Tab Baldwin gestures his players to settle down during the Blue Eagles’ game against the UST Growling Tigers on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, at Smart Araneta Coliseum. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Consider Sunday as coach Tab Baldwin’s baptism of fire in the collegiate basketball scene.

Aiding Ateneo this UAAP Season 79, the national team coach was very active on the bench in the Blue Eagles’ 73-69 victory over UST.

There’s just one thing that Baldwin will have to get used to being the consultant of Ateneo.

“I would be a lot more impressed if the noise was made by the fans than the drums,” Baldwin said. “I don’t really believe in artificial noise. From my experience, I believe that we have enthusiastic fans and it would be nice to hear them.”

Baldwin said that the noise brought about by the banging of the drums gravely affected both team’s huddles, adding to an already boisterous atmosphere inside Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“Players can’t communicate with their coach and the coach can’t communicate with their players. I think it’s a bit farce because basketball is a game of communication. It’s fast moving and there’s so much interaction between the players. When you eliminate that aspect, you introduce a lot more mistakes into the game because the players and the coaches cannot communicate well together,” he said.

“I believe it is farcical and I also believe it is unnecessary because you have a number of very enthusiastic fans that would sit up there and make appropriate noise when your team is on a run,” Baldwin added. “When the team struggles, we can see if they will support their team when they are struggling. That’s the way it should be. Anything else is artificial and I’m not artificial, I’m kind of a real guy. So I like reality, and that’s not reality to me.”

Baldwin cleared the issue isn’t about the drummers themselves, but rather, the act of it taking place inside a closed space like the Big Dome.

“Nothing against the actual people who are up there banging their drums. That’s their job,” he said. “What I’m against is that taking place. The people there are doing their job but that does not do anything for me except drown out the opportunity to communicate.”

Baldwin also said that he’d rather hear the crowd make their presence felt in the games, the way Gilas Pilipinas fans did every time the national team took the court, than have the drums muddle people’s communication inside the stadium.

“If that’s the Santo Tomas fans drowning out the ability to communicate, I applaud them. But a bunch of drummers? I’d bring a bunch of brass section in the next games and drown out all the drums,” he said.

“What are we going to do? I’ve been to stadiums all over the world and I’ve seen crowds that are completely intimidating because of the noise they put on you. But drums don’t intimidate anyone.”