Gilas Pilipinas begins grind in Estonia

Photo by Randolph Leongson/INQUIRER.net

Gilas Pilipinas finally made it to Estonia after for its week-long training camp in preparation for the 2015 Fiba Asia Championships.

The national team arrived in the capital city Tallin on Tuesday (Manila) time after a long trip that included a five-hour layover in Instabul, Turkey.

Here, coach Tab Baldwin will be pitting his crew against the Netherlands, Iceland, and Estonia in the four-team pocket tournament.

READ: Marc Pingris to rejoin Gilas Pilipinas

Baldwin is counting on his players to put both hearts and their minds when playing against these teams.

“At this stage, we need our mind more than our heart. And that might mean we might not play our best, but I’m OK with that as long as we improve and we grow,” said Baldwin in one of the training camps before Gilas departed for Tallin.

But more importantly, it’s a chance for the team to jell and build chemistry as the Nationals hope to forge a one solid unit come September 23 in Changsha, China for the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship.

“Chemistry is always the key. You can have all the talent in the world, but if the chemistry isn’t good, you’re dead,” said veteran national team campaigner Asi Taulava.

READ: Tautuaa, Rosario sacrifice PBA Draft to be with Gilas in Europe

Taualava believes that the lessons of the past national teams should be taken into consideration, citing the case of the Powerade Team Pilipinas back in 2009.

“We had that with coach Yeng’s team. We had stars but we couldn’t get it done because we didn’t have chemistry and we didn’t understand FIBA basketball,” he said. “With coach Tab around that for a while, it helps us with the transition period. With the experience that we had, we should make a run.”

“This trip will give us experience for us to know how to finally play as a team. We’re going up against some big teams so we want to go out there and play hard.”

While they have only been practicing for three weeks and with only just five weeks to go before the Asian Qualifiers, Taulava hopes that everyone on the team understands the gravity of the Euro trip.

“We’re not going on a vacation. Coach Tab wants to win every game we step on court and play. If we don’t win them, we’ll go home and run the whole time. We got to go out and play hard.”