Baldwin satisfied with 'competitive' Eagles despite 3 straight losses
The Ateneo Blue Eagles end the first round of the UAAP Season 88 men's basketball tournament with three straight losses, the latest being a 66-71 overtime loss to the NU Bulldogs at the Araneta Coliseum on Oct. 18, 2025. Still, coach Tab Baldwin is quite satisfied with how competitive the fourth-running Blue Eagles have been this season as they sport a 4-3 record, especially after going 1-6 in the first round last season.
VIDEO BY NIEL V. MASOY
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00:00Over time lost and then you close up the first round with these three games after a 4-0 start, so can you assess your team's first round performance and what would be the team's mindset for the second round, especially every game now?
00:17Probably too early to talk about what our mindset will be. Obviously, play games to win, but first round was an incredibly interesting round, I think, for everybody. It's not done yet. There's some games to go.
00:32It's tough. Two overtime games in a row. Obviously, we were undermanned with today, but I'm really impressed with the team's fight back today. We had a 4-0 start. You know, we had some roster disruptions and we looked like it in the first quarter. We didn't have a lot of cohesion.
00:56But, again, at least today we didn't run out of gas. We saw some character out there, but you've got to give him Francisco. He had two big threes in the overtime and, you know, that created a separation which, you know, changed the possession by possession fight that we were in up to that point in time.
01:18But it's a great game of basketball. And, again, you know, we've got to give credit to Enio and Jeff for, you know, getting their nose across the finish line first. But, very disappointed that we weren't able to pull this one out.
01:36At 4-3 at the end of the first round, we've got to be pretty happy. We're not happy we lost three in a row, but we lost two really class teams. Two teams that were top of the league when we played them.
01:50We took both of them to overtime. So, I feel good about, you know, the quality of our team and our ability to compete at the top level.
01:58Having, you know, brought, I don't know, maybe five or six of our roster in around June, I never felt like we would be peeping at this point in the season.
02:11So, there's better to come and we'll need it because I think the other teams will get better as well.
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