Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin pointed out the lack of playing chemistry as the reason for the Blue Eagles' up-and-down campaign in the UAAP Season 86 men’s basketball tournament.

The defending champions managed to hand University of the Philippines its first loss of the season with a 99-89 drubbing in the finale of the first round, but couldn’t carry over the momentum in their second-round meeting which ended in a 65-60 defeat on their end on Sunday, Oct. 29.

It was the Fighting Maroons' first victory over the Blue Eagles since Game 1 of the best-of-three finals series in Season 85.

Even though it is a far cry from their elimination-round campaign last year, the 65-year-old mentor is always the first to insist that the group is a work in progress. 

“That’s the one thing that I think UP did a real good job exploiting today. And it’s probably the biggest weakness of our team is that they don’t have a playing chemistry. Playing chemistry isn’t just we like to play together, it’s having a collective understanding where your efficiencies are. If anybody knows anything about chemistry, you can’t create a good formula unless you get the right elements working together in the right way. And that’s what chemistry in a  basketball needs, and that’s a work in progress for these guys,” said Baldwin.

Although Ateneo trailed for most of the game, the team managed to close the gap on UP in the fourth period before eventually falling short in the endgame and absorbing two losses in a row.

The same thing happened in Ateneo’s 62-59 defeat against Far Eastern University, which swept them in the two-round elimination.

With much urgency, Baldwin couldn’t wait for the Blue Eagles to grow as quickly as possible as the tournament is expected to become more competitive heading into the Final Four.

“They all learn and we certainly talked about that. But more importantly, we talked about how proud I am of the effort they’ve put out there. It's toe to toe with a really, really good basketball team. And we had a chance, so this season, we’ve had a lot of that. We’ve come out on the short end too many times. How many times can I say growth? It’s what this team is learning,” he said.

The Blue Eagles are looking to turn things around before it becomes too late when they resume action after the one-week break against National University Bulldogs, the same team that defeated them in their opening game, on Sunday, Nov. 4, at the Mall of Asia Arena.