By MARK REY MONTEJO
Ateneo head coach Tab Baldwin is already anticipating tougher defense on his highly-touted one-and-done player Kymani Ladi following two stellar performances so far in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament.
Ladi has lived up to the lofty billing so far, proving to be a potent offensive threat for Ateneo and teams are surely looking for ways to contain the versatile 6-foot-8 forward.
“I actually told Kymani starting tonight that I thought the defense would be a little bit more focused on him and I wanted to see a crooked number in the assist column and you see, we don’t see that,” said Baldwin.
“So I think more and more going forward, Ky’s going to have to make adjustments. He’s going to attract the best defenders and is going to attract defensive schemes,” he added.
Just like in their 86-83 win over Far Eastern University, the 25-year-old Ladi took charge anew in the waning seconds and sank a booming triple to help Ateneo eke out a low-scoring 62-60 victory against University of the East.
There, Ladi chalked up his first double-double output of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Aside from him and Jared Bahay delivering timely baskets in the pressure moments,
But Baldwin believes that if Ateneo really wants to go deep in the season, other players should also step up and not just Ladi and Bahay.
“Other guys have got to step up in order to continue to get him some freedom of movement and some space, so the better the rest of our roster plays, the better Kai is going to play,” Baldwin continued.
“But if he is at any point seen to be a real focal point of our offense, then the going will get tough for him and it will get tough for us as well,” he added.
Ladi, despite Ateneo’s 2-0 start, was far from being satisfied.
“I’m not necessarily content with my performances. I can never really be too content [and] I just want to make sure that our team is progressive with each game,” said Ladi.
“I think there’s some instances where we are, you’ll see it in some cases where we’re really solid on defense. There’s also times that we’re not,” he concluded. “But that’s the joy of basketball.You keep working on it.”
