Perfecting the Blue Eagle Machine

MANILA, Philippines – I was actually expecting Ateneo to bowl over and spill out the guts of the UST Growling Tigers in the first round. But they didn’t. A 91-80 win actually flattered UST since they had no foreign player and they lost all their stars from the previous year.

Now, after the first round break, my thought was Ateneo had taken the full measure of all the squads. But the other teams had not gotten the full measure of Ateneo because the Blue Eagles, despite being undefeated, were annoyingly inconsistent. 

Let’s not talk about that second round match against La Salle because the officiating was horrible. 

We can take a look at the UE and the UST games.

There was no close first half for the Red Warriors unlike in their first round encounter. The lead went up to 23 but really… 23 still flatters UE. And what do you know, the Red Warriors cut into that 23-point lead. It did go back up before the Red Warriors sliced into the deficit once more to arrive the final score, 76-63. The first round win had a bigger margin for Chrissakes. It does get annoying when they step off the gas pedal.

Now, against UST — no such thing. Well, they finally played the full 40 minutes and the result was a 101-51 demolition. 

They stopped Sherwin Concepcion, who scored 22 points, including six triples in the first round. This time, Concepcion finished with five points and, get this — zero treys.

Paul Manalang had 10 minutes in the first round match. After this meeting, he had seven.

In the first round, Joshua Fontanilla had nine points and six assists. This game: eight points and four assists. 

It was that kind of hiding that whoever is behind Tomasino Web waxed eloquently, “Tigers suffer a 50-point blowout at the expense of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, 101-51.”

Pati siya nahilo. 

That margin of victory topped the 40-point, 102-62 win during Season 81 when Aldin Ayo was getting his feet wet over at Espana. Incidentally, that was also in the second round. They had Steve Akomo that year but he missed that second round tussle.

There is one player left from that loss who was also a part of this 101-51 beating: Dave Ando.  

If you look at Baldwin’s Ateneo teams, this is the fifth time they won by 26 points or more.

Here are the others:

Season 81

UST 102-62 40 points second round

Season 82

UP 89-63 26

NU 88-51 second round 37 points

UE 84-50 second round 34 points

In contrast, during Ateneo’s five-peat from Season 71-75, they only won by more than 25-points twice. 

Season 71

72-45 Adamson 27 points

75-47 NU 28 points

Now let’s look at Baldwin's teams. Season 84 includes the stats of the second round triumph over UST.

To say that the team has improved on offense and defense is an understatement.

After 11 matches (11-0), they are averaging 83.7 points. That is the most since Tab Baldwin's first title run. The holdovers from that squad include Raffy Verano, Jolo Mendoza, Gian Mamuyac, Tyler Tio, Troy Mallillin and BJ Andrade. Now, they are the veterans.

Another positive statistic is the assists.

First Round

21 assists vs. UP

21 assists vs. FEU

23 assists vs. Adamson

15 assists vs. DLSU

21 assists vs. FEU

17 assists vs. NU

19 assists vs. UST

Second Round

16 assists vs. DLSU

26 assists vs. UE

27 assists vs. UST

26 assists vs. NU

Here is Ateneo’s average under Baldwin:

14.2 Season 79

17.6 Season 80

15.6 Season 81

16.9 Season 82

20.5 Season 84

Now think about this… they lost Matt and Mike Nieto, Thirdy Ravena, Will Navarro, Adrian Wong and Isaac Go — and yet, they are playing better. 

Now to see how they come out against streaking Adamson this Tuesday.