Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin anticipates that his players will show increased pride when they face rivals De La Salle University Green Archers in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament this Wednesday.
The American-New Zealander mentor stated that they have a specific game plan in place against the Green Archers, and he expects his players to adhere to it in order to secure a victory.
“We have a game plan for La Salle, and hopefully, our players will exhibit a little more pride, and I think they will,” Baldwin said after their 77-64 loss to the National University Bulldogs last Saturday.
“I don’t like to use the term ‘wake-up call’ (to describe our opening day loss to the Bulldogs) because we weren’t asleep; we just played badly,” added the former Gilas Pilipinas mentor.
Baldwin also expressed his hope that his players would learn from their mistakes in their previous game against the Bulldogs, particularly in defending against three-pointers in the second half.
“I think the words that mean so much to Ateneans—’One’Big Fight,’ the word ‘fight,’ was left out today, and that’s inexcusable,” Baldwin said. “We are very disappointed with our performance.”
“They were 0-of-8 in the first half, and then they went 7-of-14 in the second half from three, and we didn’t do a good job contesting their threes and finding the guys that we knew were good shooters,” he added.
“You’ve got to do those things against good teams. I think NU is a very good team; I think they played with a lot of composure today, and we didn’t,” he continued.
The 13-point defeat marked the Blue Eagles’ third double-digit loss during Baldwin’s seven seasons as the team’s head coach.
The post Tab Baldwin anticipates ‘more pride’ from Ateneo in clash against rival La Salle first appeared on Fastbreak.
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