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Ballungay will get 'significant minutes' for Ateneo, says Baldwin

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Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Ballungay IG" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/09/28/20220928-kai-ballungay-ig.jpg"/></figure></div><p>MANILA, Philippines -- After an impressive preseason with Ateneo de Manila University, Kai Ballungay will get plenty of chances to prove himself in the UAAP Season 85 men&#x27;s basketball tournament.</p><p>This, according to Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin who expects Ballungay to make an immediate impact for the Blue Eagles in their bid to reclaim the UAAP championship.</p><p>Ballungay committed to play for Ateneo in July 2021, transferring from California State University, Stanislaus to Katipunan. He sat out Season 84, which saw Ateneo&#x27;s stranglehold on the UAAP come to an end after three seasons.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/26/21/uaap-fil-am-forward-kai-ballungay-transfers-to-ateneo">READ: Fil-Am forward Kai Ballungay transfers to Ateneo</a></li></ul><p>&quot;Kai is a real talent. No question about that. He&#x27;s a big 6-6, pushing 6-7. He&#x27;s a high-flier, he&#x27;s a great athlete, he can play above the rim,&quot; Baldwin told Nikko Ramos on the &quot;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3VRBDbXKtlIvnunxypTVCE?si=063e5e54bf5e4311">Call to Arms</a>&quot; podcast recently.</p><p>&quot;He can shoot the ball from the 3-point line. So he brings a lot of offensive talents, a lot of athleticism. He&#x27;s good around the basket, he&#x27;s a good rebounder. He&#x27;s got a good nose for the ball, he gets up and down the floor really fast,&quot; he added.</p><p>&quot;So we&#x27;re expecting that he will be a performer that will get significant minutes this year.&quot;</p><p>Ballungay made his debut for Ateneo in the World University Basketball Series (WUBS) in Japan, where he emerged as the tournament&#x27;s Most Valuable Player. In three games, the Filipino-American forward put up 13.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. </p><p>Yet while he has high expectations of Ballungay, Baldwin also notes that the forward&#x27;s adjustment into the team has not been ideal. </p><p>&quot;[There is] that adaptation period that particularly, the Fil-Ams or the Fil-foreigners go through, that don&#x27;t grow up playing basketball here, that don&#x27;t grow up in the UAAP high school competition, that don&#x27;t grow up in Ateneo. There is an adjustment period, it does take time,&quot; he explained.</p><p>Players like Ballungay and Filipino-American point guard Paul Garcia, another new Ateneo recruit, simply have not had enough time to make that adjustment due to the short turnaround between seasons. </p><p>Season 84 ended just last May, and Garcia came on board in July. The pair only had a few short months to learn not just the Blue Eagles&#x27; vaunted system, but to assimilate the culture that Baldwin has spent six years developing in the program. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/06/22/ateneo-introduces-fil-am-paul-garcia-as-latest-recruit">READ: Ateneo introduces Fil-Am Paul Garcia as latest recruit</a></li></ul><p>&quot;He [Ballungay] doesn&#x27;t have the leaders built into the team who are helping him make all the adjustments, nor do the other players who might have been in the program but weren&#x27;t playing minutes for us,&quot; said the coach. </p><p>Yet Baldwin also makes it clear that while there are &quot;question marks over our program,&quot; they cannot use them as an excuse come Season 85. </p><p>&quot;We gotta go out and play the game, and we better go out and be our best if we expect to succeed,&quot; he said. &quot;But it is true that the question marks are there, and they are real.&quot;</p><div><strong>Catch replays of UAAP Season 84 games via the UAAP Varsity channel on iWantTFC, available for Premium users outside the Philippines.</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2036100" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

After an impressive preseason with Ateneo, Kai Ballungay will get plenty of chances to prove himself in UAAP Season 85.

Ballungay will get 'significant minutes' for Ateneo, says Baldwin

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Ballungay will get 'significant minutes' for Ateneo, says Baldwin

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 28, 2022 10:30 PM PHT

Read More:

basketball

UAAP

UAAP Season 85

UAAP basketball

Ateneo Blue Eagles

Kai Ballungay

Tab Baldwin

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