MANILA, Philippines – The UAAP Season 80 Juniors champions Ateneo Blue Eaglets are finally in a favorable position to win the 11th SM-NBTC championship. 

During UAAP season, the Blue Eaglets went undefeated in the elimination round and immediately advanced to the finals, enforcing a stepladder playoffs format. Ateneo only picked up one loss in the season, which was against the National University (NU) Bullpups in Game 2 of the best-of-three finals series. 

SJ Belangel’s freebies proved to be the dagger that sealed the win for the Blue Eaglets. (READ: Ateneo Blue Eaglets claim UAAP juniors title with thrilling win over NU)

Prior to the tip-off of the 2018 national championships, Season 80 Finals MVP Kai Sotto led the NBTC high school rankings while graduating Belangel stood at 3rd place. (READ: SJ Belangel to stay ‘home,’ join Ateneo Blue Eagles) 

The Blue Eaglets are also the top seed out of the 8 seeded schools which include the 93rd NCAA Juniors champions La Salle Green Hills, University of Visayas, Chiang Kai Shek College, National University, Malayan University, Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu and NBTC defending champions San Beda College. (READ: 11th NBTC season to showcase talents of 32 teams in new format)

However, the UAAP champion team will be missing the services of Dave Ildefonso who will be joining his father Danny and brother Shaun in NU, as well as Joaqui Manuel who is suffering from a fractured foot.

Despite the loss of key players, head coach Joe Silva remains confident of the team’s chances. 

“Rest assured, we’ll still give it our best. When we play, we treat any tournament with high regard eh. We don’t join tournaments just for the heck of joining tournaments, we join tournaments to win,” said Silva. 

During the Season 80 finals, the Blue Eaglets already knew of Manuel’s injury and Sotto recalled that he used it as a motivation to do better. 

“Hindi niya ata pinatignan, parang pinilit niya hanggang finals kasi gusto niya maglaro, gusto niya talaga manalo. So isa yun sa mga na ginawang motivation ko na yung si Joaqui, kahit injured na siya, magpapakamatay pa siya,” said Sotto 

(He didn’t get it checked, like he forced it until the finals because he wanted so bad to play, he really wanted to win. So that was one of things I made as my motivation because Joaqui, even though he’s injured, he would die for the team.)

Batang Gilas star Forthsky Padrigao will be donning the colors of the blue and white in this NBTC season, but this time for the Katipunan-based squad.  (READ: Batang Gilas star Padrigao shifts wings: From Baby Falcon to Blue Eaglet)

Padrigao is expected assume Belangel’s role in orchestrating plays in the following tournaments of the Blue Eaglets. 

“We just expect him to do his job. He’ll be back up to SJ. At least we’re more versatile, we can put SJ at the two and he can play the point. So, yeah, we just expect him to do his job. He’s been practicing with us naman eh,” said Silva. 

Through this tournament, Silva hopes that this will further expose the Blue Eaglets to the top teams across the country and build camaraderie that will be beneficial in the future.

“I think ‘yung mga boys, may mga kaibigan sa ibang schools, at least makikilala nila from the province, mga taga-US, taga-Canada, taga-Australia and New Zealand,” said Silva. 

(I think the boys have friends in other schools, at least they’ll be able to meet the ones from the provinces, those from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.) 

“Also, it will give them a sense of how far they need to go, and how far they have come.” – Rappler.com