SHOULD Gilas Pilipinas succeed in its seemingly mission impossible in the Olympic qualifying tournament, it won’t get any easier from there.
The winner of the OQT in Latvia where the Filipino cagers are set to see action in July will face Japan, host France, and reigning FIBA World Cup champion Germany in Group B in Paris.
The highly anticipated draws for the men’s and women’s Olympic qualifiers Paris were held last night at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, with National coach Tim Cone likely convinced he has his work cut out for him.
With Penny Taylor and Carmelo Anthony doing the honors and watched by fans around the world via the FIBA’s YouTube channel, the draws laid out the initial brackets for all squads in the global cage extravaganza in the French capital from July 27 to Aug. 11.
The Philippines is bracketed with host and world No. 8 Latvia, and No. 23 Georgia in Group A in the Olympic qualifying tournament.
The 37th-ranked Gilas quintet must finish in the top two of its group to advance to the crossover semifinals against the top two of Group B, which includes No. 12 Brazil, No. 17 Montenegro, and No. 67 Cameroon.
The winners of the crossover semis will clash for the lone slot in the Olympics.
The OQT will be played through four tourneys simultaneously from July 2 to 7 in the cities of Piraeus, Riga, San Juan, and Valencia.
“We were just talking in the locker room about how this kinda feels like an ending right now because we won’t play again until another three or four months, even five months,” Cone said after his charges completed a 2-0 sweep of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers last month.
“So, it kinda feels like an ending for us. We were like, we wish we had one more game, or another game to play like next week or in a couple of days, so we could keep this group together.
“But it’s not something we control. They gotta get back. It’s back to the grind,” he added.
