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UAAP: Why Tab Baldwin is optimistic about Ateneo's future

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Rom Anzures, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Ateneo’s Tab Baldwin. Mark Demayo, Rom Anzures, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/11/26/20231126-coach-baldwin.jpg"/><figcaption>Ateneo’s Tab Baldwin. Mark Demayo, Rom Anzures, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA — For the first time since Tab Baldwin took over as head coach of Ateneo, the Blue Eagles did not make it to the UAAP men&#x27;s basketball finals. Since 2016, the Katipunan-based squad has entered the championship round every year, with the former Gilas Pilipinas mentor leading them to four UAAP titles in six seasons.In Season 86, however, after the exit of Ange Koume, Dave Ildefonso, and BJ Andrade, and with the transfer of Forthsky Padrigao to the UST Growling Tigers, the Blue Eagles displayed a retooled roster from their championship core.“It was a really weird season,” Baldwin said after being eliminated by the UP Fighting Maroons on Sunday.“We battled to be better all the time, to grow, to develop, we battled a lot of injuries. And it&#x27;s just that kind of season, you know, just sort of a fractured season.”This resulted in Ateneo ending the year with a 7-7 record and even had to face the Adamson Soaring Falcons to determine who would get the last spot in the Final Four.And while they have outlasted the Nash Racela-led squad to get to the semifinals, Baldwin bared that it was just one of those down years, a thing that dynasties go through. “It has been a rollercoaster season for us. But these guys showed a lot of heart today. They stood toe to toe with an outstanding basketball team, and we gave ourselves chances, and I don&#x27;t think I can ask much more of this team than what they accomplished this year,” he said. “A lot of people will look at this season as a season of failure, a season of indifference, but you know, I choose to look at the glass being half full. I&#x27;d like to think that this season is a bridge for us,” Tab continued. ‘We&#x27;ve just come out of an amazing era of Blue Eagle basketball.”Baldwin explained how the past years have affected their long-term preparations, but then also expressed how optimistic he is especially with the lessons that they got from their fourth-place finish in Season 86.“It&#x27;s very difficult to continue uninterrupted. There were so many disruptions in our program, with the pandemic and players leaving before their eligibility was finished. It impacted our recruiting,” he admitted.“So we&#x27;re looking at this year now as a bridge to what we hope will be a new era of success for Blue Eagle basketball. We&#x27;re going to be optimistic.”“We&#x27;re going to learn our lessons, we&#x27;re going to continue to develop and grow. We will be reminding one another in the months to come about the pain that we have so that the fire doesn&#x27;t go out.”“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 is the place we belong — in the finals and ultimately winning championships.”RELATED VIDEO<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=2884234" 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>

For the first time since Tab Baldwin took over as head coach of Ateneo, the Blue Eagles did not make it to the UAAP men's basketball finals. 

UAAP: Why Tab Baldwin is optimistic about Ateneo's future

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UAAP: Why Tab Baldwin is optimistic about Ateneo's future

Rom Anzures,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 26, 2023 04:37 PM PHT

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Basketball

UAAP

UAAP Season 86

UAAP Final Four

Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo

Ateneo Blue Eagles

UP

UP Fighting Maroons

University of the Philippines

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