THE Ateneo Blue Eagles have been in Israel for the past week for a training camp head coach Tab Baldwin said is aimed at “building the team from scratch.”
The camp, Baldwin said, is to prepare the Blue Eagles for Season 85 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.
“We only have a couple of games. We are going there to flesh out our system even more,” Baldwin said. “We need more offensive attacks and defensive sophistication.”
Ateneo will play two games against two Division 2 Israeli teams.
The Blue Eagles took on Ramat HaSharon on the Israeli squad’s home floor on Saturday at 9 p.m. (Manila time) and will face Elitzur Eito Ashkelon at Zysman Arena on Monday also at 9 p.m.
Both games will air live on Smart Sports’ Facebook page.
Before heading to Israel, Ateneo played only four games—three at the World University Basketball Series in Tokyo and a tune-up against East Asia Super League squad Bay Area.
Baldwin said the goal is “just to be better.”
“Just got to get a lot better. We have had such a disruptive buildup in June and July because of injuries,” he said. “Ange [Kouame] just came back, Dave [Ildefonso] has only been back a couple of weeks. Same with Matthew Daves.”
“We don’t have settled rosters and combinations that are used to working together. We have to get better and time is running,” he added.