Baldwin sees 'fractured' Ateneo season as 'bridge' to new era of success

MANILA, Philippines: For the first time under Tab Baldwin’s watch, the Ateneo Blue Eagles are not going to play in the UAAP men’s basketball Finals.

Fourth-ranked Ateneo relinquished its crown after yielding to the top seed and win-once armed UP Fighting Maroons in the Season 86 Final Four, 46-57, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Saturday, November 25.

It marked the end of the Blue Eagles Finals appearances that lasted for six straight seasons, where they won four championships including a three-peat that culminated in a 16-0 sweep of Season 82 back in 2019. Ateneo won the other title at the expense of UP last year.

Despite the end of such a streak, Baldwin said that he’s proud of how his team battled this Season 86 where they even had to figure in a playoff for no. 4 against Adamson just to make the semifinals, doing that in the middle of injuries and whatnot.

“I just got to say I’m really proud of the team, you know, because this was a season of battles, not just on the court. You know, it was a season of, it was a really weird season. You know, we battled to be better all the time to grow, to develop. We battled a lot of injuries,” said Baldwin in the post-game presser.

“Today, we battled illness, Raffy Celis wasn’t available. Andrew Bongo wasn’t available, sickness. Chris Koon’s playing with literally a fracture in his foot. Gab Gomez wasn’t available. And it’s just that kind of season, you know, just sort of a fractured season, if you will. But these guys showed a lot of heart and showed a lot of heart today. They stood toe to toe with what I think is an outstanding basketball team. And we gave ourselves chances and I don’t think I can ask much more of this team than what they accomplished this year.”

One can easily say that this is the start of a rebuilding season for Ateneo which played this year without its last year’s starters in Ange Kouame, Dave Ildefonso, and Forth Padrigao. The first two players have already exhausted their eligibility while the last one left for UST.

But for a basketball program that has been used to success even before a renowned international basketball coach in Baldwin came in, a Final Four exit this season can only mean failure. It’s just championships or bane. Staying optimistic, however, Baldwin looks at this year as a bridge to what he hopes is a new era of success in the Blue Eagles basketball program.

“A lot of people will look at this season, and they’ll say it’s a season of failure, it’s a season of indifference. But I choose to look at the glass being half full and I’d like to think that this season is a bridge for us. We’ve just come out of an amazing era of Blue Eagle basketball. It’s very difficult to continue that. There were so many disruptions in our program with the pandemic and players leaving before their eligibility was finished and it impacted our recruiting.” said Baldwin.

“And we had to contend with all of that. And I think, you know, the conspiracy of circumstances sort of caught up with us a bit this year. So we’re looking at this year now as a bridge to what we hope will be a new era of success for Blue Eagle basketball. So we’re going to be optimistic. We’re going to learn our lessons, we’re going to continue to develop and grow.”

A SPARK TO LIGHT A FIRE IN THE BLUE EAGLES

Baldwin admitted that the atmosphere at Ateneo’s dugout post-game was really down.

“We really believe that we should win this game and not winning it, there’s a lot of emotion in the dugout, there’s a lot of very downcast players, they’re hurt. And they’re really feeling the pain. And you don’t feel that if you haven’t invested,” said Baldwin.

“And they have invested in it because of that investment in blood and sweat, now there’s tears because they didn’t get what they wanted out of it,” added Baldwin, who himself looked a bit teary-eyed when he was talking to the media.

But the pain, the 65-year-old Baldwin said, can be put to good use. It can be used as a spark that could light a fire to the resolve of the Blue Eagles who look to return to their winning ways.

“I think that we talked exactly in the terminology, you asked this question about a fire, this has to be a spark for them, which lights a fire, which burns all of us until we put it out with some hardware in the future. And so we will be reminding one another in the months to come about the pain that we have so that the fire doesn’t go out,” said Baldwin.

“Hopefully it will be part of the process of giving us the motivation and giving us the drive to work our tails off to get back into what we believe, you know, should be the place we belong. And that’s in the finals and ultimately winning championships.”