Tab Baldwin takes comfort in lessons learned for Ateneo after tumultuous UAAP Season 87

In recent years, the usual takeaways for Tab Baldwin and the Ateneo Blue Eagles are championships, highlights, and wins.

But in UAAP Season 87, where they finished dead last with a 4-10 record, the thing they have to show for after 14 games is something that is probably less glamorous, but at the same time more valuable.

That is, the Ateneo Blue Eagles leave a forgetful campaign in 2024 with a handful of lessons to better themselves next year and beyond.

Suffering his career-worst outing with Ateneo in the UAAP, Blue Eagles head coach Baldwin spoke about looking at the silver lining in their tough season.

Cultivating a program that has long been focused on player development, there is still much to take away from the challenging season.

“You know, a lot of our growth and development historically has been on the practice court, because we’ve always had a fairly strong veteran presence to play the predominant number of minutes. This year, you saw Kris Porter and Jared Bahay out there playing big minutes without an idea of what the Blue Eagle traditions and culture was really all about.

And that’s where [Chris Koon and Sean Quitevis] did everything they could to try to instill that and inform these young players,” Baldwin said after losing their final game of the season to Adamson. 

[RELATED: Adamson soars past Ateneo to set up UAAP Final Four playoff against UE]

“So certainly, there will be development from minutes played, and this is what I talked about in the dugout, you know, we have to reflect on the lessons that we take out of this season.

Because when you can’t take so many positive memories, you can’t take trophies, you can’t take the highlight moments in bunches, it doesn’t mean you can’t take something,” coach Tab added.

Since arriving at Ateneo in 2016, Baldwin has enjoyed a lot of winning. But strained with player exits and a lot of younger stars landing into leadership roles like Porter and Bahay, the 66-year-old is looking at the bigger picture of things.

Though he admitted that his players would’ve probably wanted more success and wins rather than lessons and development, there wasn’t any denying what the Blue Eagles had to go through this season.

“Several of our players were afforded a wonderful opportunity to grow and develop, based on very very difficult experiences in games and on-court.

And even [the veterans gained] so much experience that they’ll take moving forward in their careers. Because, you know, the lessons of not being successful are oftentimes far more powerful and far more instructive than the lessons we can learn from success,” remarked Baldwin. 

“Nonetheless, I think all of us would trade those lessons in a heartbeat for success but you know, this is what the Lord has in store for us now and we will in humility accept that. And, try to grow and be better because of it,” he added.

Despite everything, Baldwin said that the Blue Eagles are leaving UAAP Season 87 with their heads held high.

As a coach that has always held his players to an elite standard, there wasn’t anything else that the American coach wanted out of his players.

Rather, he afforded them the highest respect that he could possibly give them – to come out with how they did all things considered.

“You’re right, it was a tough season. It was a season that we can look at honestly without a lot of regrets because we understand the circumstances that put us where we ended up and the battles we had to fight. And they aren’t things you know that you wanna carry around and talk about all the time but they’re also real. They’re also things that factor in when they happen to any team,” said Baldwin. 

“And you know, my respect for the team to have to battle through that adversity, players having to accept roles that they honestly weren’t prepared for, players having to step into positional responsibilities that frankly they didn’t come to Ateneo, to the Blue Eagle program to have to play in those positions, that doesn’t garner anything but respect from me,” he added.