TAB Baldwin praised the whole Ateneo crew with a special mention to what he called the “buffaloes,” a group of players seldom seen on the floor, as the Eagles celebrated their return to the top in UAAP men’s basketball.
"Obviously, it's very welcome to be back on top. I don't want to say it was a surprise, but I think this team had to work harder than the previous versions of Blue Eagle champions. And boy, I love to say that ‘Blue Eagle champions,’” he said after Ateneo's 75-68 Game Three win over University of the Philippines on Monday.
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"A lot of people doubted these guys and I think there were times when it was kind of easy to doubt them. But there was a lot of things that happened this year that kind of flew below the radar with this team. And it really made the championship one that was against all odds."
Baldwin noted his "buffaloes," fringe players in the third group, played a big role in preparing the rotation players for the games.
"We did things that we've never done. We call them the buffaloes, they're guys on the roster, their names are there, but there's some other guys whose names aren't there," he shared
Some of those play sparingly in games, among them Inand Fornilos, Jacob Lao, JC Fetalvero, and Kyle Ong, while others are on the reserve, namely David Diaz, Justin Diaz, and Ian Espinosa, who are waiting for their chance.
"You can't imagine the roles they played every day in practice. They simulated UP, they simulated Adamson, they simulated every opponent, and they didn't even run our stuff in practice. They would dedicate themselves, and some of the coaches would dedicate themselves entirely to our opposition," he said.
"We never did that before, and the reason we never did that before is because we felt so powerful and so strong in what we did that we sort of discounted our opponent feeling like we would just roll over them. And this year, we didn't believe that. We tried in the beginning, but we weren't prepared to play teams that we played and we suffered. And so, this was the counter-measure, and the buffaloes just got better and better and better."
With the buffaloes putting the rotation players to work, the Blue Eagles core was always prepared for tip-off.
"We would have scrimmages and they would just roast our starters. We didn't get fired up for the scrimmage and things like that, but I did everything I could to embarrass the starters telling them, 'You're gonna let these guys roll over you?' And they just kept kicking their butts daily in practice, physically, too," said Baldwin.
"I think they have a major, major stake in this championship."
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