Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
On the eve of the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin is now putting on the finishing touches as the national team braces for France.
“We’re still focused on the tactical. It’s a big issue for us, to get the tactical right,” he said on Monday after wrapping up the team’s early afternoon practice at Cuneta Astrodome.
“I’ve never felt we could take teams, like I coached in the past, underdog teams and go out on the floor unprepared and think well and all of a sudden, we’ll find some talents that we didn’t have yesterday and beat these guys or they’re just gonna come out and be bad. So we have to do the extra work, we have to do the mental work.”
The Philippines will open the OQT against the world number five France on Tuesday as both teams eye the elusive ticket to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
For the second straight session, Baldwin brought his “taxi squad,” with Jared Dillinger and cadets Kiefer Ravena, Kevin Ferrer and Von Pessumal joining the team anew to help them adjust to the nuances of Les Bleus.
READ: Baldwin brings in Gilas ‘taxi squad’
Despite the French team getting another boost with the impending arrival of Nicolas Batum, the American-Kiwi coach remains unfazed, saying, “We’ve looked at all their personnel. We’ve looked at their videos. We’re prepared from a personnel standpoint, whoever comes out. We understand all of their players pretty well and all their strengths and weaknesses. Stopping them and stopping their system is always the task. Again, it comes back to combining the physical and the mental (preparations). I think that we’re mentally close to being prepared.”
READ: Nicolas Batum to join Team France in Fiba OQT Manila
What Baldwin wants, though, is for Gilas not to fall behind early and give itself a fighting chance in the end by keeping the game close.
“Their offensive flow is very fast. It’s not something easy to replicate in practice. France is extremely confident. I really hope we don’t get to a bad start. If we get out to a bad start, it’s like we’re feeding the beast. It’s not a good idea. So having a good start is important to us,” he said.
And he believes that the national team has done enough preparations as they brace for the world number five.
“I’ve been pretty happy with the players. They’ve embraced that. The physical preparation is done, so it’s the mental preparation that we’re finishing, and they have been very good in the last couple of days,” said Baldwin.
“I think we’ll be ready. I have no question that we’ll be ready. I also don’t have any question that this is a big task for the guys. I just hope that we play our best basketball and we make France play something less than their best.” RAM