Gilas Pilipinas 5.0 bowed out of the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge with just a solitary win in five games. With a coaching staff and a younger core, the team, composed of collegiate stars and semi-professionals, fought valiantly but fell to more experienced squads.
National team head coach Tab Baldwin, who is currently serving as a consultant to the Ateneo Blue Eagles, shared that the high expectations for the team heading into the tournament had not aligned with the predicted reality.
“At that level, a bunch of inexperienced guys that I thought they played extremely hard,” the American-Kiwi mentor shared after Ateneo’s 76-71 win over FEU. “I thought they grew, they learned as they went through the tournament. That’s exactly what we sent them there for.”
“To those people that want some different result than what we sent them there for, it’s unrealistic. We said that before they went.”
Sending over a team composed of players who have not even played a single PBA game was not something that they had wanted, but the circumstances gave them no choice, according to him.
“This was a developmental exercise and it’s never ideal to have a national team that’s a developmental exercise but, really, what other options did we have,” the 58-year-old mentor said. “We weren’t going to get PBA players.”
Moreover, he believes that this tournament is an important step in the development of the next generation of the program.
“These are the kids that we believe have the potential, some of them, to be the future Gilas so it was very important that they get experience,” he furthered.
Baldwin then shared the frustrations he and his staff have had regarding the backlash the team is receiving.
“Anybody else that’s commenting on it outside of those comments never asked us what the whole exercise was about this year,” he rued. “So people should learn to understand what the exercise is before you make comments about it.”
“Obviously everybody would like better results but nobody more than the players. Nobody wants good results more than the players.”
But the Florida native stands firm on his belief that this tournament could only lead to better things for the Gilas program.
“I’m proud of them. I’m proud of the effort they put in. I’m proud that they got a win,” he stressed. “I’m proud that they showed effort and desire and puso the whole time and that’s what we asked of them.”
“Now they come home more seasoned players. Now they understand what it’s like and so we’re going to be better for that.”
