Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin says he couldn’t care less about points

MANILA, Philippines—Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin didn’t hold back when he was asked about his players’ scoring production in the Blue Eagles’ latest loss in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament.

Mason Amos top scored for the Blue Eagles with 12 points but the defending champions of the league bowed to Adamson on Saturday in their second loss of the season against a win.

That loss, for Baldwin, was the bigger picture. Never mind the squad’s point production.

“Some guys care about points but I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about points,” said the veteran tactician.

“In fact, I carry this thing (stat sheet) around and we hardly look at it. We have our own set of stats based on analytics and that means so much more. For you to see this and see names atop and think they played a great game, maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.”

Helping the rookie in the scoring department was Kai Ballungay with 10 markers while Chris Koon and Lebron Nieto scattered nine points apiece in the defeat.

All the Blue Eagles’ contributions on the offensive end went for naught when Vince Magbuhos hit a buzzer-beating triple in overtime to take the 74-71 victory. He finished with 11 points.

The final tally is all that matters as far as Baldwin is concerned.

“The points total that matters is the one down at the bottom. That’s all I care about. This stat sheet rarely reflects the performance.”

Baldwin, a former Gilas head coach, also used the Philippines’ gold medal match against Jordan on Friday night as an example.

He said that not all of Gilas’ efforts were quantified in the paper, yet they still notched the country’s first gold in men’s basketball after 61 years.

Of course, Baldwin also had to laud his former player Ange Kouame.

“Again, go back to this and you can throw this damn thing out for that game. That game was all about toughness and defense… Ange Kouame, given the minutes that he got, controlled the paint.”