Building Baldwin’s Ateneo teams

Building Baldwin’s Ateneo teams

by rick olivares

Building a champion not only means the ability to recruit, but to deal with adversity on and off the court (such as the cycle of graduation, injuries, and casualties due to academics), and to coach. Yes, having an all-star line-up doesn’t guarantee success. It helps, but as the saying goes, “the ball is round.”

Let’s take a look at how Thomas Anthony “Tab” Baldwin has done in his four years with the Ateneo Blue Eagles by the numbers and charts.

Season	Loss of Players to injury, academics, graduation, transfer out, or opting out of their eligibility based on previous UAAP roster	Rookies, Team B call-ups, transferees, returnees	Homegrown (Either from the Ateneo Grade School or High School players) number	Finish
79	Arvin Tolentino, Jerie Pingoy, Hubert Cani, John Apacible, Clint Doliguez	Raffy Verano, Jolo Mendoza, Shaun Ildefonso, Jawaun White, Jme Escaler	9	2nd
80	Adrian Wong, GBoy Babilonia, Shaun Ildefonso, Jme Escaler	Gian Mamuyac, Tyler Tio, Troy Mallillin, BJ Andrade	9	Champion
81	Chibueze Ikeh, Troy Mallillin, Kris Porter, Jawaun White, Vince Tolentino	William Navarro, SJ Belangel, Adrian Wong, Matthew Daves, Angelo Kouame	9	Champion
82	Raffy Verano, Jolo Mendoza, Aaron Black, Anton Asistio	Pat Maagdenberg, Gio Chiu, Jason Credo, Troy Mallillin	8	?

Before Tab Baldwin (3^rd Place)

Year 1 – UAAP 2^nd Place

Year 2 – UAAP champion, Champions League champion

Year 3 – Filoil Preseason Cup champion, BBI champion, City Hoops champion, UAAP champion

Year 4 – D-League champion

Let’s take a look at the improvement of his teams over the years.

Season	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks
79	70.9 (3rd)	44.8 (4th)	14.2 (2nd)	4.3 (last)	4.5 (2nd)
80	85.2 (2nd)	45.4 (3rd)	17.6 (3rd)	5.4 (7th)	3.3 (5th)
81	80.6 (1st)	47.4 (1st)	15.6 (2nd)	6.3 (2nd)	5.4 (1st)
82	76.8 (2nd)	48.3 (3rd)	16.9 (1st)	6.2 (2nd)	7.1 (1st)

Season	Fastbreak Points	2nd Chance Points	Turnover Points	Free Throws
79	6.0 (last)	12.1 (2nd)	14.7 (6th)	250/374 (2nd)
80	9.1 (last)	15.5 (2nd)	13.7 (7th)	327/467 (3rd)
81	9.7 (6th)	15.5 (1st)	15.6 (2nd)	228/322 (3rd)
82	12.2 (3rd)	18.9 (1st)	21.7 (1st)	165/233 (1st)

And lastly, how they rank on both offense and defense.

Season	Team Rank Offense	Team Ranks Defense
79	3rd	2nd
80	2nd	3rd
81	1st	1st
82	2nd	1st

The question at this point is, “Will they win it all again?” They are in the finals, but they still have to win two more games.

And let’s take a look at the previous champions – their five-peat squads and how they also accomplished that given their adversity quotient of sorts.

Let’s also see how those five-peat teams of Norman Black did.

Season	Loss of Players to injury, academics, graduation, transfer out, or opting out of their eligibility based on previous UAAP roster	Rookies, Team B call-ups, transferees, returnees	Homegrown (Either from the Ateneo Grade School or High School players) number	Finish
71	Ford Arao, Emman Monfort, Zion Laterre, Ken Barracoso, Martin Quimson,	Ryan Buenafe, Nico Salva, Justin Chua, Vince Burke, Tonino Gonzaga	3	Champion
72	Mike Baldos, Yuri Escueta, Chris Tiu, Jobe Nkemakolam	Emman Monfort, Chris de Chavez, Frank Golla, Juami Tiongson	5 (six if you include Emman Monfort from Ateneo de Iloilo)	Champion
73	Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Nonoy Baclao, Jai Reyes, Oping Sumalinog, Vince Burke	Jeric Estrada, Carlo Balmaceda, Arthur dela Cruz, JP Erram, Jumbo Escueta	5 (seven if you include Monfort and Ateneo de Cagayan’s JP Erram)	Champion
74	Carlo Balmaceda, Chris de Chavez, Arthur dela Cruz, Eric Salamat, Jumbo Escueta, Ryan Buenafe	Gwyne Capacio, Von Pessumal, BJ Cipriano, Kiefer Ravena, Greg Slaughter, Oping Sumalinog	6 (eight if you include Monfort and Erram)	Champion
75	Bacon Austria, Kirk Long, Emman Monfort, BJ Cipriano, Jeric Estrada (they also lost JP Erram for the rest of the campaign to a knee injury late in the second round)	GBoy Babilonia, Isaac Lim, Ryan Buenafe, Kris Porter, Nico Elorde	6 (seven if you include Erram)	Champion