Ateneo’s Mason Amos dunks in opposition to UST within the UAAP Season 86 males’s basketball match.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.web
Ateneo would somewhat be in a greater place within the standings heading right into a showdown in opposition to title rival College of the Philippines.
However regardless of simply making it to 3-3 (win-loss), the Blue Eagles are prepared for the streaking Maroons.
“We’ll present up,” stated Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin. “Don’t lose any sleep over that; we’ll be there.”
UP shall be supremely assured in opposition to the workforce it has confronted within the championship of the previous two seasons. And why not? The Maroons have received their first six video games within the UAAP Season 86 males’s basketball match, whereas the defending champions have been up-and-down thus far within the match.
However Baldwin believes Ateneo’s 97-77 rout of College of Santo Tomas in its final match will give UP one thing to consider.
“All of us actually love being underdogs and we hate being the favorites,” Baldwin stated.
“Goldwin can sweat just a little bit this week, which we would like him to. However come recreation time on Sunday, he’s gonna be very assured in his workforce. He’s gonna be very assured of their efficiency, their power however he’s gonna fear, in the course of the week; I feel our efficiency [against UST] gave him a number of various things to consider,” he added.
Thus far, the one factor Goldwin Monteverde has been enthusiastic about is getting his workforce to enhance recreation by recreation.
“For the workforce, each recreation, successful shut video games or not, we’ll at all times take that as a studying expertise. Particularly the workforce now could be a mixture of veterans and younger guys. They actually need this type of recreation to develop as a workforce,” stated Monteverde after UP’s nail-biting 67-64 victory over La Salle final Wednesday.
“We shouldn’t cease [learning],” Monteverde, who steered UP to the Season 84 crown—the college’s first after 36 years—stated. “There’s at all times one thing we will enhance on. As a workforce, we are going to actually take good and unhealthy video games as studying classes for us. We are going to proceed to search for enhancements each recreation and each observe. [Learning is] nonstop.”
UP’s 6-0 begin has erased no matter psychological edge Ateneo would have had at this level of the match, the primary assembly between the 2 squads who battled for the final two UAAP titles. However even when issues had gone in accordance with plan, Baldwin by no means noticed this recreation as a rematch of final season’s championship duel. “It’s undoubtedly not a rematch. The names of the groups is perhaps the identical however we’re far cry from the identical workforce that went out to play them. We now have quite a bit to show. And each recreation is a chance for us to show issues. It’s a fantastic situation to go up in opposition to the workforce that’s crushed [every opponent],” Baldwin stated.
UP and Ateneo will parade rosters which are starkly totally different from those that engaged in a dramatic championship showdown final season.
That duel featured Finals Most Invaluable Participant Ange Kouame, Dave Ildefonso, BJ Andrade and Forthsky Padrigao of the Eagles going up in opposition to the Maroons’ Carl Tamayo, Zavier Lucero, James Spencer and Henry Galinato.
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None of them shall be on the courtroom on Sunday.