MAAARING hindi matunog ang mga pangalan nila sa UAAP men’s basketball championship run ng Ateneo, subalit may espesyal na puwesto sina JC Fetalvero, Jacob Lao, Kyle Ong, Ian Espinosa at Inand Fornillos sa momentous moment na ito upang mabawi ang trono.

Para kay coach Tab Baldwin, hindi lamang sila “Blue Eagles Band Of Brothers” na nagtsi-cheer para sa rotation guys mula sa bench.

“There’s this thing in our organization now, you’ve heard of BEBOB, we’ve beat that to death. But there’s this thing now called ‘The Buffalos’,” sabi ni Baldwin makaraang mawakasan ng Ateneo ang anim na buwan na paghahari ng University of the Philippines Lunes ng gabi sa makasaysayang Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“Nobody knows how important the Buffalos are. A big, big chunk of this championship trophy belongs in the hands of a group of young men that most of you probably don’t even know their names. Unfortunately in team sports, sometimes that’s what happens,” aniya.

“But never have I ever coached a championship team where it was truer that every single player and then some on our roster, some more players outside of our roster deserve a piece of that trophy.

Never have I ever coached a team where I can say that more honestly.”

Malaki ang ginampanan ng mga manlalaro na ito sa redemption season ng Blue Eagles, lalo na matapos ang series opening loss sa Fighting Maroons kung saan gumawa si Baldwin ng malaking adjustments lalo na sa depensa.

“You can’t imagine the role they play every day in practice. They simulated UP. They simulated Adamson. They simulated every opponent,” sabi ni Baldwin. “They didn’t even run our stuff in practice. They would dedicate themselves – and some of the coaches – they would dedicate themselves entirely to the opposition.

“We never did that before. The reason we never did that before was we felt so powerful and so strong in what we did that we sort of discounted our opponents feeling like we would just roll over them,” aniya.

“And this year we didn’t believe that.”

Isa sa mga key players na nakinabang ay si Finals MVP Ange Kouame, na nag-averaged ng 17.7 points, 11 rebounds, at tatlong blocks sa three-game series.

Sa kabila ng problema sa tuhod sa kabuuan ng season, nagpapasalamat si Kouame sa mga reserves sa kanilang kontribusyon upang makamit ng Ateneo ang ika-12 UAAP title, bukod sa pagpapanatili sa kondisyon.

“Like I said, it’s not about Ange Kouame. It’s about the whole team,” sabi ni Kouame. “When it comes to the bench players, especially Jacob, Inand… They really give their heart during practices.”

“I missed a lot of practices during the season because of my knee so props to them for making us better. This is where we are right now because of them. I’m really thankful for those kind of teammates who really give their hearts and leave their minutes out just to make other people better,” dagdag ng Season 84 MVP.

“So yeah. It’s about the whole team. It’s about the Buffalos.”