Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin. Photo from UAAP Media.

MANILA — Ateneo de Manila University has finally won two straight in UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball.

After only winning one game in seven first-round bouts, the Blue Eagles defeated National University and University of Santo Tomas to improve to 3-6 in the standings, and this put them at No.5 — still within striking distance of a spot in the Final Four. 

Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin pointed out how this might show that there is some semblance of progress for his team following these pair of wins, saying that it takes off some pressure that their previous skid clouded them earlier in the season. 

"The easy answer [if we have progress] is yes," Coach Tab said after they spoiled home bet UST on Saturday at the Quadricentennial Pavilion in España. "You pop the bubble every time you get a win, and some of the pressure goes off."

READ: Ateneo wins second straight in Round 2, spoils UST’s home game

However, Baldwin expounded that gauging the progress of the Blue Eagles must be viewed in the internal standards that are put into his troops, not those coming from the outside. 

"But it kind of depends on what your perspective is and what you're looking at," he said. "We're trying to achieve some things this season. Nobody's going to hide the fact that it was a horrendous, difficult first round."

"Not all of our play was horrendous. But who doesn't focus on results? We try not to focus entirely on results, so it would be a little bit, I guess, exploiting the moment if I said that getting a result all of a sudden makes everything okay."

"It's really consistent with what we've always taught. It's just that there's more pressure on the process externally, because people want results."

"But it does take some of the pressure off, it does relieve things a bit, but we don't want to get too carried away when we get a result," he furthered, while also saying how they are more focused on the growth of their players as this can help not only in this particular season, but to the bigger picture of their program in the coming years. 

"We're really trying to mature a lot of younger players. A lot of players that lack significant experience. You know, this group of guys had to replace a lot of players that were expected to be here this season," Coach Tab said of his team that saw the exit of the likes of Kai Ballungay and Geo Chiu.

"When we got half our squad as first-year players, half of that half didn't arrive until May, June, so it has to be about their growth," said the multiple-time UAAP champion.

Baldwin didn’t discount how these wins are valuable considering the number of young players that they have, among them Jared Bahay and Kristian Porter, but he also emphasized that they must not, in any way, get satisfied as they enter their last five games in Season 87. 

"I see growth. I see evolution. I see development," he said. "These guys deserve to enjoy them. Because trust me, you know, in practice, the focus is going to be again on maturation and evolution and development with a view to winning more games."

"It isn't my job to be happy with them. It's my job to be their critic. It's my job to be their analyst, and to figure out what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and to help them address the weaknesses and the failings that they suffer from."

Fortunately for the men from Loyola Heights, Coach Tab and his crew are ready to help the Blue Eagles pick themselves up and rise back into form. 

"Compared to where we want to go, we're just scratching the surface. We're not satisfied, but we like the results," he said.

"So we'll be focused on our problems and areas that need improvement, and players that need attention for. You know, players that didn't play for reasons they didn't play, they need attention, players that did play and didn't get the job done to our satisfaction. They need attention, and that's where our coaches' attention will go."

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