GILAS Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin is convinced his charges’ stint in the King’s Cup in Amman, Jordan where they wound up fourth earlier this month exposed the squad to different styles of play that will only make them better.
“I think that we saw different types of basketball. We saw the North African teams which are big, strong, and rugged teams, and that’s Tunisia and Egypt. I think Egypt was the strongest team there. We saw different styles of play,” Baldwin said on Radyo5 92.3 News FM’s Power and Play program hosted by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.
“To beat Tunisia was very good, an excellent way to beat them. Beating Saudi Arabia and Jordan-B, we’re expected to do that so nothing special about that,” he added.
The American-New Zealander strategist said losing to Jordan twice in the tourney will only toughen up Gilas.
“Losing to Jordan twice was a little bit disappointing, but they were the ultimate champions of the tournament, and they were very strong. We saw a very polished Jordanian team with an excellent guard lineup that really gave us problems,” Baldwin said.
“They played at home and that’s a good lesson, too, to learn how to play against opposing referees on the road. So, all in all, I was relaxed about our results.”
The nationals lost their last three matches for a 2-4 card overall in the five-nation, six-squad tilt.
That’s just fine with Baldwin.
“The results were okay. It wasn’t really the primary goal to win games, but I’m more interested in the performances of our players and then, us as a team collectively. No question that the learnings were there. The performances of our players were something that we’re more focused on,” he said.
“That’s the whole point of going in and doing these things, is to learn more about these young players and how they step up at each level against each style of basketball. So, the important thing is we’ve got more knowledge about our team and about our roster.”
The first window of the Asian qualifiers for the 2023 FIBA World Cup the Philippines is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia will be in November this year with a home-and-away format anew.
The Filipino dribblers are set to do battle in the second window from February 21 to March 1; the third window from June 27 to July 5; the fourth window from August 22 to 30; the fifth window from November 7 to 15; and the sixth window from February 20 to 28, 2023.
