Learning, growth loom for young Blue Eagles, says Baldwin

MANILA, Philippines -- Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin believes that the young team will be showing growth throughout the year, as they stood their ground but eventually faltered against the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons on Saturday.

Ateneo cut an 18-point disadvantage to a single-digit difference but lost steam to have a losing UAAP Season 87 debut against UP, 77-61.

This, as they had to go through horrendous free throw shooting and the loss of veteran wing Chris Koon, who injured his ankle during the game.

Despite this, Baldwin said that the young team “has a very bright future”.

“I expect that our team is going to show growth throughout the year. You want to have success in spite of the need for growth, if you know what I mean. We do need growth,” he said.

“We've got a lot of young players that just through the experience of playing these games, they're going to learn a lot. They're not learning without playing the games, and you want to put wins on the board in spite of that,” he added.

Baldwin stressed that each player could not rush the lessons, and just focus on possession-by-possession and doing their jobs.

“As a team, we have to adjust to the learnings that we're going to get for sure. There's just no way around that. We want to be excited about that. This team has a very bright future. We're just anxious that that future comes quickly.”

Against UP, Ateneo shot 28.8% from the field on a 19-of-66 clip.

The Blue Eagles also made just 19 of their 40 free throws, good for 47.5%.

UP, on the other hand, made 49.2% of their shots (29-of-59) and sank 14 of their 24 free throw attempts.

Baldwin acknowledged that in their first game, “there were certainly several aspects that leave a lot to be desired,” especially on defense and free throw shooting.

“I thought our defense wasn't executing what we asked them to do, wasn't focused on particular strengths of the UP players. And I think that's a mental mistake. I think physically we really contested today. I was really proud of how hard the guys played,” he stated.

“Everybody's going to focus on free throw shooting and why not? It was horrendous. You can't win the game. When you get to the line 40 times, you should probably win the game, and we didn't win the game. In fact, we weren't even close. So free throw shooting was really huge for us.”

The former Gilas Pilipinas head coach, however, was surprised at how the Fighting Maroons played zone defense throughout the game.

“That kind of surprised me. That's something that a lot of teams, when you play a game and the other team zones you for virtually the whole game, you kind of take that as a compliment, as if they can't guard you man to man,” he said.

“Obviously it was a tactic that worked. And they're big. So they wanted to keep their bigs closer to the basket. They used the zone to do that, and it was effective. But it was surprising as well. A team as deep and as talented as UP feeling like they have to zone. But you know, that's the game of basketball. And congratulations to them. That's a very strong basketball team,” he added.

“But our team, we fought. We did. We did as well as we could given the mental mistakes that we made on defense and free throw shooting.”

With Koon being sidelined after just seven minutes of play, the team relied on rookie sensation Jared Bahay who put up solid numbers of 13 points,five rebounds and four assists. The guard, though, shot 3-of-11 from the field. 

“[Bahay’s] gonna take the mantle of on court leader more. The team is only gonna respond collectively with a good chemistry. As much as I think when he’s out there, he leads them to do that. And he’s capable of that,” Baldwin said. 

“He’s a very good leader. His talent, that will be evident throughout the season. But he’s still a young player. He’s gonna make mistakes.”

Ateneo will be facing the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers next on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.