CHICAGO - When he decides to hang up that golden clipboard for good, Tab Baldwin will have his bust prominently featured on the Mount Rushmore of UAAP coaches.
For now, though, the only thing that's mounting are the losses. The L column is at five right now, the most ever in a single season since Tab landed in Katipunan in 2016.
READ: What's more unacceptable to Tab than giving up late daggers
The Ateneo Blue Eagles aren't showing the poise and mental mettle of a Baldwin-coached team. In each of their defeats, they've managed to turn ecstasy into agony by committing silly turnovers, bricking free throws and making poor decisions under duress.
Something is broken, a fracture that not even renowned physician Jose Raul Canlas, a UP and US-educated bone mender can fix.
Just to be clear, I'm not blaming the players for the 4-5 (win-loss) record. By the same token, a coach can only teach so much. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink.
WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON AT ATENEO?
"It's a tough season. No doubt about that, especially with the way we have lost four of the five but we will continue to improve in order to not only make the Top 4 but to be a relevant, competitive team when we get there," Baldwin told me in a phone interview.
Ateneo going to the Final Four with Tab leading the charge used to be a given, almost a birthright. This time, that journey is in peril, laced with so many unknowns.
But Baldwin insists the task is still doable even as the blood-thirsty NU Bulldogs are up next this Saturday and another defeat can send the Blue Eagles crashing to 4-6.
"It's still in our hands, and as long as it is, we'll just focus on the next opponent," he said.
Silly as it sounds, and because victory has many fathers while defeat is an orphan, rumors are leaking that Tab is on the hot seat.
FAKE NEWS
Not true. And he ain't getting the cold shoulder from the bosses and the boosters, either. The only thing cold around Tab is the Chocobambam that he drinks in the morning during his regular walks.
"I've felt nothing but support but that's never my issue. My only issue is how the team performs. We just work hard and try to work smarter to improve the team."
No surprise there. While coaches are hired to be fired, Tab is a generational talent that has earned unlimited leeway by capturing four titles beginning since 2017 and redefining the Ateneo basketball program.
Which is why even in their darkest hours when their hearts have been pinched five times already this season, the fans continue to rally behind Baldwin with that familiar manta "In Tab We Trust."
However, with the way the ball has bounced unfavorably for them the last few assignments, I asked Tab if he ever allowed himself to imagine a world where Ateneo doesn't make the Final Four under his watch and what's that apocalyptic scenario.
"I don't waste time imagining things. Long ago I taught myself to play the games one at a time. It's the only reality there is and I prefer to live in the real world, not the fantasy world," he replied.
At a time of year when we commemorate our loved ones who have passed away, Baldwin is telling all and sundry that Ateneo is alive and well and the talks of its demise in Season 86 are, to borrow Mark Twain's line, "grossly exaggerated."
In other words, just chill Blue Eagles Nation. The general has spoken. And the troops are just fine.
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