AMID the joy over Gilas Pilipinas’ success in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers, head coach Tab Baldwin warned the national team can't get ahead of itself as it continues to push towards the 2023 Fiba World Cup.
Gilas Pilipinas returns to training on Tuesday, just a few days after the youthful squad swept its three matches inside the Clark bubble, including two against longtime rival Korea that brought joy to home fans.
Baldwin, however, was quick to temper expectations of the team, and, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, emphasized that this program is geared toward the future, particularly the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves,” Baldwin said. “This is a good start but we have to stay focused. Again, I keep coming back to that them of improvement. We have to keep focused on what we don’t do well. There’s a lot of that still.”
Focus now shifts to the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade from June 29 to July 4 where the chances of Gilas to advance to Tokyo is unlikely considering it is facing Serbia and Dominican Republic in the preliminaries.
Former Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman warned Filipino fans not to expect a miracle in Serbia. Baldwin agreed.
“Coach Rajko would know better than anybody what we are going to go up against in Serbia and I think he is a 100 percent right. In Serbia, we are going to be playing a Serbian national team which is trying to make it to the Olympics. It’s at home.”
“We play with a lot of expectation here in the Philippines from our public but it’s more out of passion for success. In Serbia, there is a definitive expectation that they conduct themselves like the best basketball team in the world. And they play like that.
"And if they don’t, the criticism is harsh and the reaction from the fans, from the administration, from the management of basketball in Serbia is extremely harsh as well,” said the concurrent program director of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
Baldwin doesn't expect Serbia to take the Philippines lightly, especially after Gilas’ performance in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
“I suspect that they will be waiting for us and I don’t think our results here are going to help us too much when we get there. Perhaps they might be looking a little bit more closely at us than they might have otherwise looked at us.”
“I expect that this is going to be great lessons for our players but I know that our players are going to go there and fight and that’s what we have to do,” Baldwin said.
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Tab Baldwin says Serbia won't take Gilas lightly in OQT - Sports Interactive Network Philippines
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