National team coaches Alex Compton (right) and Tab Baldwin. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
TAIPEI – Gilas Pilipinas will go on seclusion in the week leading up to the Fiba Asia Olympic qualifier, and it is not only the players that will be sharpening up while they’re there.
Head coach Tab Baldwin and his coaching staff will plot and perfect several plays on both ends in an effort to counter defending champion Iran, which beat the Filipinos again last week in the Jones Cup the Iranians won on Saturday at Xinzhuang gymnasium here.
“There were lessons in that game and we will use that game as a kind of benchmark,” Baldwin told reporters prior to leaving back for Manila on Monday. “We will use some of the tactics that we need to use against Iran in the week of the preparations.”
Led by the 7-foot-2 NBA veteran Hamed Haddadi, the Iranians again defeated the Filipinos, 74-65 and Baldwin readily pointed out into seeing several things he said would be “valuable to the coaching staff.”
“Particularly their defense,” Baldwin noted. “Their defense is so tough.”
The Philippines has lost all of its game against Iran since posting a 77-75 victory in winning the Jones Cup in 2012 with Marcus Douthit, one of them being the title game in the Fiba Asia World Cup qualifier in Manila the year after.
Gilas played without Andray Blatche in that game, while the Iranians were also shorthanded with the enigmatic Samad Nikha Bahrami staying home nursing a shoulder injury.
Still, the Iranians showed a lot of firepower even with Bahrami out, with Hamed Afagh drilling the Filipinos with three triples to support Haddadi’s 22-point, 15-rebound effort.
“That game (the loss last week), will feature a lot (in game reviews) in our week of preparations,” Baldwin said.