AFTER an 'inexcusable' start to its title defense, Ateneo mentor Tab Baldwin believes he'll see his wards carry 'more pride' against old rival La Salle on Wednesday.
"Hopefully, our players exhibit a little more pride. I think they will," Baldwin said.
READ: Tab Baldwin left to rue Ateneo's lack of fight in opening loss
"I don’t like to use the term ‘wake-up calls’ since we weren’t asleep. We just played badly — irrespective of adjustments, and NU created scenarios where we needed to continue to adjust and we didn’t adjust enough. Second quarter, we adjusted. Second half, we didn’t do such a good job," he added.
Ateneo rookies Mason Amos and 6-foot-10 big man Joseph Obasa combined for four points.
For Baldwin, however, being a rookie is not an excuse.
"I don’t care. They gave rookie performances today. It’s inexcusable but that’s what happened. When you say a lot’s been expected of them, you better characterize who is expecting and whether they should be worried about those people expecting," Baldwin explained.
"The expectation of us was that they step up and do their job, which they didn’t do a good job of, but that’s what rookies do. It probably will happen again. It just better not happen often for the sake of our team," he added.
"Now if they don’t grow, it’ll be a hell of a long year," Baldwin said.
Winning eight of the last nine UAAP matches between the rivals since 2017, Ateneo looks to reassert its mastery of La Salle on Wednesday, 6 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena.
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