ON his third season with Ateneo, naturalized center and leading MVP contender Ange Kouame is eyeing for a bigger piece of hardware.

“To be honest with you, I’d rather be a champion than to be MVP,” said the 24-year-old Koaume, who credited his teammates for keeping him in check while in the bubble just before the start of the UAAP men’s basketball tournament.

“The way how they all messaged me to tell me that this is family, you have all the time to come back and be ready for the season. This is what motivates me to push myself every single day, especially for this season and I try to do that for them also,” he added.

Seeking a four-peat, the Blue Eagles are determined to avenge their only loss of the season that ended a remarkable 39-game winning streak that began in October 2018.

Ateneo takes on University of the Philippines in the second all-Katipunan championship series in the last three seasons at 4 p.m. today before an expected huge crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The Eagles won their first meeting, 90-81, last March 26 before the Fighting Maroons shattered their foes’ myth of invincibility with a 84-83 victory on Labor Day.

While Ateneo made quick work of Far Eastern University in the Final Four, 85-72, for its fifth consecutive title round appearance, UP overcame La Salle’s stiff challenge to secure its second Finals appearance in the last three seasons.

The Maroons, who led for a total of just 31 seconds in their two meetings with the Green Archers in the Final Four, came back from 14 points down to score a thrilling 78-74 win Friday night.

Carl Tamayo, one of Kouame’s opponents for the league’s highest individual award, showed why he is the future by outscoring the entire La Salle crew, 12-10, in the fourth quarter to power UP from that improbable win.

A prized find from Cebu, Tamayo showed no-quit attitude which the 21-year-old slotman hopes to carry against the fancied Eagles.

“Simula bata ako, hawak ako ni coach Gold (Monteverde). Never kami tinuruan na bumigay eh,” said Tamayo.

“Alam namin nahihirapan kami, pero alam ko sa loob ko na simula bata ako walang bibitaw hanggang dulo, lalo na sa ganitong klaseng sitwasyon. Siguro dahil doon sa hinubog sa amin ni Coach Gold simula noong bata kami, lalabas at lalabas lalo na tuwing ganitong laro,” he added.

Kouame, who is on his third season, and Tamayo, a rookie, are currently the UAAP’s best in the middle.

While Tamayo may have been working his way to become dominant in the coming seasons, Kouame, having being part of Ateneo’s shared environment, knows that winning individual awards is not a gauge for a player’s success.

“We don’t think in terms of what I did or what I have to do other than how that’s gonna impact everybody else. I would echo Ange’s sentiments that if he’s fortunate enough to be named the MVP, that’s a credit to the season he had,” said Baldwin.

“But the first thing he’s going to do is he’s going to credit the contributions of his teammates to how he played. And I think we all feel that way,” he added.

“We’re not going to let him have the MVP all by himself. We’re all going to take a piece of it home. It’s just like the championship trophy. If he’s fortunate enough to win that, there’s clear knowledge that everybody in our program contributes to the success of all of us.

“That’s our culture and we’re proud of that culture. We think it contributes to our success so we will continue to speak like that.”