IT was a painful 72-46 loss to the Ateneo Blue Eagles, talking about the National University (NU) Bulldogs.
At 1-2 (won-lost), they are lucky that they aren’t 0-3 because they faltered during the late stretch against University of Santo Tomas (UST) in their season opener. Had there been a few more minutes, the Growling Tigers could have possibly come away winners as they played much better in the fourth period but ran out of time as NU faltered.
Why is this NU team struggling? Again…I will say my opinion on this based on what I know and see…they have a young team. But I said that last year and during the final year of Eric Altamirano? So technically, shouldn’t they be ripe?
It didn’t help that during Jamike Jarin’s first season, JV Gallego and Meds Salim were taken out due to disciplinary action. Joshua Sinclair was injured. That hurt the team last season (not to mention starting point guard Chino Mosqueda was lost due to a knee injury). The change from a more half court team to a pressing one under Jarin was difficult because this team was young and maybe did not have the talent for that.
It helps that now they have John Lloyd Clemente, John Galinato, Enzo Joson and Dave Ildefonso. They showed that hounding defense that Jarin likes—one he employed while at Ateneo High School, Talk ‘N Text and San Beda—during the summer. They were up and down, but I thought that they showed promise.
Am I surprised that they have not really performed well? Not really, it is a young team. Jarin told me that late addition Troy Rike had an up and down preseason with them. Not having enough meaningful games with the Bulldogs has affected their chemistry more so since the bulk of the preseason, NU played without Rike.
I think any team will struggle when their big man or their bigs aren’t playing well. Issa Gaye, who I first got to know when he was pals with former Reedley and Ateneo Team B center KG Gueye, had a difficult game.
The small ball will help but only if you can rebound and run and if the opposing team doesn’t have very good ball carriers.
Having said all that, I hope team management will be patient. However, blowouts like these do not help at all. The last three times these Ateneo and NU squads played each other including the summer games, the Bulldogs got creamed.
There is one other thing…after the match during the post-match presser, I was surprised that Ateneo Coach Tab Baldwin talked about wanting to send a message to Dave Ildefonso that he made the wrong choice. Coach Tab told me that about three hours before the game, and I was certainly surprised he mentioned it to the media. It is an unspoken word about sending messages of this sort.
One school of thought is you just don’t say it because you don’t want to give the other guy motivation for next game. During the past summer league, Mapua totally did a number on former center Will Gozum who opted not to stay in Intramuros and instead returned to UP. They went right at him on the offensive end and punished him physically on the defensive end. La Salle did the same to Nico Elorde when he moved to Ateneo. Ditto with Far Eastern University when Jerie Pingoy played in a charity game after he left the Baby Tamaraws for the Blue Eagles. The Tams really shut him down and put a hit on him.
Conversely, it works the other way, too. Shaun Ildefonso played well in his summer games against Ateneo where he played in high school and up to first year college. Robert Bolick Jr. is 3-0 with San Beda against La Salle.
So was Dave ever going to move up to the senior Blue Eagles?
Based on what I know and my conversations with the Ildefonsos during Dave’s final year with the Blue Eaglets…. NO. That was sealed the moment older brother Shaun moved to NU to get more playing time when their father Danny Ildefonso was lured back. It was a career move because Dave is seen with a bigger chance to move up to the pros, but the father wanted to give Shaun a playing chance.
Dave pointed out to former high-school teammate SJ Belangel bleeding for minutes. I think that is normal for many rookies unless they are wunderkinds like him. John Galinato isn’t exactly getting minutes on that NU team. Galinato, who won a bunch of titles with the Chiang Kai Shek Blue Dragons, is playing 20 minutes less than Dave. Miguel Oczon, who was a star with CKSC but moved to NU midway in his high-school career didn’t even make it to this UAAP lineup. I recall during the recent NBTC All-Star Game when I asked if anyone was recruiting him. Oczon, at that time, said no. So I pointed him in the direction of UST and someone helping out their program. They had openings, but he opted to stay with NU.
Now for NU…they are in a tough place. I hope people aren’t too much in a hurry because they have a good young team. Eric Altamirano didn’t win it right away. Just trust the process and know that this is a young team with a lot of studs. But they do need to compile some wins. The ultimate barometer at the end of the day is the ones in the win column. Unfortunately, their next match is against streaking Adamson.