MANILA -- The Ateneo de Manila University men’s basketball team will look to rely more on its three-point shooting and a “diversified attack” to make up for the absence of Forthsky Padrigao in the upcoming UAAP Season 86 tournament.

This, according to head coach Tab Baldwin, who thinks the Blue Eagles have the potential to be a better three point-shooting squad when the next UAAP chapter unfolds.

“I think we have varied our offensive attack this year. I think we are potentially a very good three point-shooting team, I think we’re a team that sees the floor really, really well,” Baldwin said.

Ateneo announced that Padrigao will not suit up for Season 86 as he failed to meet the school’s academic requirements.

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A Season 85 Most Valuable Player candidate and Mythical Five awardee, Padrigao averaged all-around numbers of 11.61 points, 4.22 rebounds, 4.94 assists, and 2.22 steals for the defending men’s basketball champions last year.

The playmaker leveraged his ability to read pick and rolls together with center Ange Kouame (12.61 points, 11.28 rebounds, 2.61 blocks), as the duo combined for about a third of Ateneo’s total offensive production.

Baldwin said in order to remedy the absence of Padrigao and the departures of Kouame, Dave Ildefonso, and Matthew Daves, the Blue Eagles are going to vary their points of attacks and lean on more ball and player movement.

“We like a lot of movement, we like a lot of screens, not necessarily ball screens, like in the past we’ve used a lot of ball screens particularly with Ange [Kouame] because of his ability to screen and roll and be a presence near the basket,” Baldwin shared.

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“We still have Joe Obasa who can do some things offensively, but I think we are going to diversify our attack a bit and probably look to shoot the three a bit more this year.”

So far in Ateneo’s AsiaBasket Las Piñas Championship stint where the Blue Eagles have arranged a title showdown against the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde Blazers, the stats have backed Baldwin’s statements.

The Blue Eagles have been shooting slightly better from behind the three-point line at 31.73 percent compared to just a shade under 30 percent back in Season 85; the Katipunan side has also increased its total three-point makes to 11 a game from 9.05 from the last UAAP tournament.

Moreover, Baldwin’s wards have been taking about four more three-point attempts per game in the AsiaBasket at 34.67, with long-distance shots accounting for about half of their total field goal attempts in a contest -- again a slight increase compared to their Season 85 averages.

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Gab Gomez (42.5), Mason Amos (40), and Kai Ballungay (34.5) have been leading the blue and white in terms of three-point percentage through six contests.

As for teamwork, the Blue Eagles have produced more assists at 22.17 per game to just 18.11 in Season 85.

And while the numbers have been encouraging, Baldwin said his group is still “a long way to go” in terms of developing chemistry and cohesion.

“I think we’re well short of the quality of cohesion that we need and that we are after. We have to understand the level of competition is going to go up significantly when we face UAAP teams,” the American-Kiwi tactician said.

“While I think we are making progress, I think we still have a long way to go, six, seven weeks before the start of the UAAP. I just talked to the team about developing cohesion against the high level of competition.”

Baldwin is also aware of the struggles his rookies might face once the UAAP competition tips off; the veteran mentor said it will be a matter of figuring the right formula or player combination as they try to defend the UAAP men’s basketball crown.

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“There’s no question, we’re going to have to use, get minutes from our first-year players, whether it’s Raffy Celis or Andrew Bongo or Shawn Tuano or Lebron Nieto or Joe Obasa or Mason Amos, all of these are first-year players, and the list goes on,” he said.

“We can’t avoid the fact that we’re going to have to play rookies this year. We have so many. It’s just a matter of, are they having a good day, is it the right kind of match-ups, are they progressing from the beginning of the season throughout the season, are they becoming more reliable players as time goes by.”

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