IT has been so far so good for Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles after convincingly winning their first three games all against billed Final Four contenders to take an early 3-0 lead in Season 80 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s basketball tournament.
The Blue Eagles has been a well-oiled wrecking machine with well-distributed offensive loads to each players and fluid system run by coaches Tab Baldwin and Sandy Arespacochaga. They downed Adamson University with a rampant 85-65 win on opener last week, followed by a 92-71 rout of University of the Philippines last Wednesday.
Their latest victim was Far Eastern University winning in another lopsided game with a 94-82 conquest on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“It’s a good start but it’s only a good start,” Baldwin said shortly after their third straight win. “[However,] they are important games since the season is not long. It’s nice to get them in the bank since there’s going to be tough games ahead.”
Arespacochaga agreed saying “it’s still a long way to go.”
“Our philosophy has been looking at games one game at a time,” he added.
Ateneo has won over their first three opponents with a winning margin of 17.6 points per game, with a handful of Eagles contributing in each game with Thirdy Ravena becoming their consistent leader posting versatile numbers with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game to lead his teammate also bannered by Chiz Ikeh, Anton Asistio, Isaac Go, Mike and Matt Nieto, Aaron Black, Tyler Tio and Rafael Verano.
For the first three victims of the Blue Eagles, all pointed at Ateneo’s discipline and fluid shooting with 43.5 percent shooting in its first three games to average 90.3 points per game and moved the ball well with 14.7 team assists per outing.
Baldwin and Arespacochaga praised the effort and sacrifice of their wards to become better individuals and better team this season.
“My players have done a nice job working hard and focusing on becoming good players,” said Baldwin, who surprisingly steered the Blue Eagles back to the Finals last season in just his first season with the team. “It’s still a learning process, we have to improve our discipline. That’s a good compliment if other coaches are saying that but I think the job is far from done.”
“The players have been terrific, their attitude has been that it doesn’t matter how many minutes they play, they come in and they do their job. We’d like to keep it that way,” Arespacochaga said for his part.
The Blue Eagles are all hoping that the best has yet to come in their 3-0 start with 11 games to go in this tight and unpredictable elimination race.
“We just try whatever the job is whenever we are working. If it’s a practice, we’ll try to have a good practice. If it’s a game, we’ll play a good game,” Baldwin said. “That’s our formula, that’s our belief system and we’re not going to change that. Nothing is perfect but we do believe in what we are trying to do.”
Image credits: Stephanie Tumampos