July 1, 2016
Countdown to Manila OQT: 4 days
"We're not playing for second place in that game."
Baldwin on group phase opponents, home court advantage: pic.twitter.com/WNH8QvbA4C
— LVJ (@levijoshua) July 1, 2016
Believe Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin when he calls his team “significant underdogs” in the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Manila, Philippines next week.
But that doesn’t mean the home squad will be satisfied with just participating in the tournament. The Gilas mentor is hoping his team feeds off the underdog label against France and their other Manila OQT foes as they try to clinch an Olympic berth.
“Again, I’m not a big one for predictions. I know that you look back in the history of sports, and I mean what I say, we are significant underdogs, but if you look back in history of sports, underdogs win sometimes,” Baldwin said on Thursday.
“So we take heart from that. We don’t ask for a miracle. We don’t expect a miracle. We expect an opportunity and we expect to build the strength of our team to the best it can be.”
Baldwin said France is “is a legitimate top five team in the world” and are eager to triumph in the Manila OQT, but Gilas should also try its best to win the game, no matter how difficult it is to accomplish.
“They are bringing a very strong team here. They have every intention of winning the OQT. So, it’s a big task but we are going to show up with every intention to win. We’re not playing for second place in that game,” Baldwin said.
“Then we get New Zealand the next day and New Zealand looks like a team playing more to our level but they have more experience than us at this level,” Baldwin shared.
“They’ve got a very strong bunch of campaigners for 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.”
Baldwin is wary that the road towards the Rio de Janeiro Olympics won’t be easy, but he wants Gilas to fully utilize the homecourt edge the team has.
“We’ve got our hands full. We know that. The people know that whether they like to admit it or not. But we know that when this place gets packed, it’s worth some points to us,” he said. “We hope to exploit that to the best of our ability and give them something to really cheer about.”
He added Gilas’ focus in the remaining days of practice is looking specifically at how their two group phase opponents play by studying film.
“Things that we see now specifically related to France and to New Zealand. We are getting a lot of video now of France and New Zealand, we are seeing their systems, we are seeing their plays, we see what types of action they run offensively, how they scheme defensively,” he said.
“They’ll make adjustments specific to us but generally speaking, we are getting a feel for how they play now, so we are looking at what our schemes will be defensively and we are looking at some things to tinker with our offense to exploit their defensive tendencies. It’s now all very specific, tactical stuff now.”
The Philippines will play France on July 5 before clashing with New Zealand on July 6.
