Ateneo de Manila University head coach Tab Baldwin felt that he had to re-introduce a winning culture to the current crop of Blue Eagles to get the squad out of an early funk in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines Season 86 men’s basketball tournament.
The defending champions suddenly found themselves lumbering at sixth spot three games into the tournament with just one win under their name. Ateneo is just above winless teams Far Eastern University and University of Santo Tomas.
Parading a rather young squad after the departure of key veterans from its championship core, Ateneo looked wanting in discipline and composure in the closing stretch.
While the Blue Eagles bested archrival De La Salle University in a narrow escape to barge into the win column after an opening-day loss to National University, Baldwin’s wards failed to hold on to a 19-point first half lead against Adamson University last Saturday in a stinging 71-74 overtime defeat.
“So we better figure out some things about how important it is to be composed, mentally and physically tough, as we were against La Salle,” Baldwin said.
“But you can’t do it in one game and say that’s who you are. That’s just a lie. You gotta do it over and over.”
The Kiwi-American mentor rued that his players, especially the new ones, are still struggling to grasp the team’s culture that brought Ateneo back to the throne last year.
Holdovers Kai Ballungay and Chris Koon as well as rookie Mason Amos could only do so much to carry the team on their backs.
“We’re talking about the essential character of a basketball team. And, a lot of things come into play. What is your culture? And I think right now we haven’t established that,” he said.
“What is the buy-in from the players? We have so many new players, it’s not that they’re reluctant to buy in but there’s an actual process you have to go through, a mental process and say that this is what I want, this is what I want to be, this is who I want to be in the context of a team,” Baldwin added.
“We still have players going through that process, and it’s hard to get cohesive performances which we need and which we lack without that collective buy-in.”
Baldwin challenged his players to show what they are made of in another match that is sure to test their character.
Ateneo will face on Wednesday a confident University of the East side sporting a 2-1 win-loss record in a four-way tie at second spot just behind league-leading and unbeaten Season 85 runner-up University of the Philippines.
Game time is at 1 p.m.
“It’s certainly a team that we have to contend with but the real team we have to contend with is the one wearing the blue shirts,” Baldwin said.
“That’s the one we’ve got to get right. We just have a lot of work to do.”
