ALTHOUGH Gilas Pilipinas completed an emphatic two-game sweep of rival South Korea in the third window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, the team’s mission is far from done.
In fact, it’s just starting, according to coach Tab Baldwin.
Baldwin said his charges can’t let their guards down, especially in the coming Olympic qualifying tournament set from June 29 to July 4 where Gilas Pilipinas is not given much of a chance against world-ranked opposition.
“I think we cannot get ahead of ourselves. This is a good start, but we have to stay focused,” Baldwin said after the all-amateur Philippine five hacked out an 82-77 decision over the Koreans last Sunday behind closed doors at the Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center in Pampanga.
“We have to keep focused on what we don’t do well, and there’s a lot of that still,” he added.
The nationals proved untouchable in the qualifiers with a 6-0 record in Group A and clinched a slot in the Asia Cup in August in Indonesia, but the Olympic qualifiers will pose a stern test.
“I don’t think that our results here will help us much when we get (to Serbia). In Serbia, we’re going to be playing the Serbian national team trying to make it to the Olympics. It’s at (their) home (turf),” Baldwin said.
“I expect there are going to be great lessons for our players. But you know, I know that our players are (also) going to go there and fight. That’s what we have to do.”
The Filipinos will tangle with favorite Serbia on July 1 and Dominican Republic next day at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
Only the top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout semifinals on July 3.
The training pool in Clark will also likely compose Baldwin’s final 12-man line-up in Serbia, with 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto, naturalized player Ange Kouame, and Dwight Ramos among the expected shoo-ins.
“The players that we have here in this bubble are the players that will go to Serbia. I think we’ll be taking either 12 or 13 players. We haven’t made a final decision on that yet. We’ll have to leave one or two behind, but the 12 that we select to play will be taken from this group here,” Baldwin said.
“Obviously, we’re only allowed to play 12 players. We can’t do what we did here and change the rosters game-by-game.”
There’s so much work these young guns have to do, according to Baldwin.
“Until we can fix the problems that maybe weren’t exposed in these games here, that will be exposed later on, then we can’t really expect to be successful in 2023,” he said. “So, there’s a tremendous amount of work to do.”
Baldwin said Gilas is eyeing to play a tune-up game with China before the two teams head to different countries for their respective tilts.
“Our plans before that are to have practices here before we fly out. And we are very hopeful to have a practice game versus China, who are staying here before they head to Canada for more preparations for themselves,” Baldwin said, whose squad is hitting the ground running anew today in Pampanga.
