Gilas Pilipinas after its win over Iran. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin admitted that despite the home court advantage, the Philippines is still coming to the 2016 Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament here as the odd man out.
But that doesn’t mean the Filipinos, despite being the underdogs, are not going to be at their best.
“I’m not a big one for predictions. I know you look back to the history of sports, and I mean what I say, we are significant underdogs,” he said after wrapping up practice at Mall of Asia Arena late Thursday night, the team’s first since returning to the country from its 18-day Euro trip.
“Underdogs win sometimes. We take heart from that. We don’t ask for a miracle nor expect a miracle, but we expect an opportunity and we expect to build the strength of our team to the best that can be,” Baldwin said.
With the OQT less than a week away, the stern coach and the Nationals are now focused on crafting specific game plans for their first two opponents, New Zealand and tournament favorite France.
“We’re now focusing on the things that we see now specifically related to France and New Zealand. We’re getting a lot of videos now from France and New Zealand and we’re seeing their systems and their plays, what type of actions they run offensively, how they scheme defensively. Generally speaking, we’re getting a feel for how they play now, so we’re looking at how they’re schemes will be defensively and things that we may be able to tinker with our offense to exploit some of their defensive tendencies. It’s all very specific tactical stuff now,” he said.
The enormity of the task at hand, especially with France as Gilas’ opening assignment in the last qualifying tournament before Rio, is not lost on the American-Kiwi mentor.
“We recognize France as a legitimate top five team in the world and they’re bringing in a strong team here. They have every intention of winning the OQT, so it’s a big task, but we’re going to show up with every intention to win. We’re not playing for second place in that game.”
“We get New Zealand the next day, and they look like a team that is playing more at our level, but they have a lot more experience than us at this level. They’ve got a very strong group of campaigners in that team. They’re not going to be as big as they could have been, but at the same time, they’re a team that has some size and a lot of experience.”
But Baldwin is banking on the Filipino fans as the sixth man when they take on the floor at Mall of Asia Arena starting July 5 and he hopes they don’t disappoint.
“We’ve got our hands full. We know that and the people know that, whether they would like to admit it or not,” said Baldwin. “But we know that when this place is packed, it’s worth some points for us and we hope to exploit that to the best of our abilities and give them something to cheer about.”