BT Toews has spent most of his coaching career in Japan, gaining firsthand insight into what it takes to build one of the world’s premier women’s basketball programs.
Now, the new Gilas Pilipinas Women head coach hopes to apply those lessons as the Philippines prepares for the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I’m bringing a lot. I sent—I don’t know how many—but probably about 12 players in 10 years to the national team. Part of being a coach that long is that you are part of creating Japanese basketball. Coaches watch each other. They watch successful coaches,” Toews said.
“The fact that Japan plays the way they do is no secret. They started in 2015 with a FIBA ranking of 15. And then it took them 12 years. They went to eighth, and now they’re presently third. It doesn’t happen overnight, right? So yeah, of course.”
The 60-year-old Canadian spent the last decade with Fujitsu Red Wave after more than three decades of coaching in Japan. His career there included stints with Toyama Grouses, Kuroda Electric Bullet Spirits, Hyogo Storks, and Hitachi SunRockers Tokyo-Shibuya from 1992 to 2025.
During that time, Toews regularly matched wits with some of Japan’s top coaching minds, including Tom Hovasse, who previously coached both the Japanese men’s and women’s national teams.
Toews believes his 10-year tenure with Fujitsu provides the closest blueprint for what he wants Gilas Women to become. Under his leadership, the Red Wave won back-to-back Women’s Japan Basketball League championships while playing a style that closely resembled that of the Japanese national team.
(C) Fujitsu
“We’re using them—I won’t say as a blueprint. I will use my team more as a blueprint, not necessarily the national team. But my team at Fujitsu, where I coached for 10 years, plays not much differently than the national team,” he said.
“And some of that is probably because Tom Hovasse, who’s the coach there, and I have been coaching against each other, competing against each other. And we are also really good friends. So I think our basketball philosophies, or styles, are very, very similar. There’s not a huge difference.”
That does not mean, however, that Toews plans to transplant Japan’s system wholesale. Instead, he wants to adopt the principles that helped Fujitsu win consecutive league titles while tailoring them to the strengths and identity of the current Gilas Women roster.
“But I don’t want to say that we can just bring what Japan does to the Filipino national team. Not only should you not copy someone completely, because you lose the essence of the players that you’re coaching and what they do well, but at the same time, I feel like there are a lot of areas that we can tune up and imitate,” Toews explained.
For a team that often gives up size against international competition, Toews wants defense to fuel the offense. His goal is to force turnovers, generate transition opportunities, and avoid prolonged half-court battles where taller opponents typically hold the advantage.
“I think the biggest—or the area where I want to put in my most effort—is defensively, and just to make sure that we have not just a solid defense, but a defense that is also attacking,” shared Toews.
“Because we would like to be in transition as much as possible due to our lack of size, and take the best parts of Filipino players and put them in a position to succeed with the talent that they have. The major obstacle when you play internationally is in the half-court,” he continued.
While the offensive system is still evolving, Toews believes the team has already made encouraging progress during its recent training camp.
“Right? I think everybody’s seen that. When you’re running 96 feet, you’ve got all that space, and you can use speed, you can use timing, and you can use cutting. It’s fine. But when the defense gets set, and it’s the half-court, and you’re not a big team, it gets tough to score. So I think the offense can be organized, and in this last camp, I spent a lot of time on that,” he said.
“We should see—well, I don’t know whether the shots will go in or not—but I think you will see that there’s some method to what we do on offense.”
That system will receive its first major test later this month at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Guadalajara, where Gilas Women will compete in Group B against host Mexico, Canada, and Senegal.
Despite the difficult draw, Toews remains focused on giving his team a chance to compete.
“It would be great to win the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Mexico. But that’s going to be a huge hurdle for us. It would be like world news if it happens. You know, you’ve got Canada in there,” said Toews, whose squad will be anchored by Jack Animam, Kacey Dela Rosa, Vanessa De Jesus, and Afril Bernardino.
“But there are teams in our pool that are definitely beatable. And so that’s what we focus on. And the first game is against the hosts,” he added.
While the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament presents an immediate challenge, Toews views it as another step toward a much larger goal: the 2027 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, which the Philippines will host in Cebu.
“Yes, of course. That’s at the back of my mind. And we are building towards that. If we’re honest here, we’re building towards that,” Toews said.
“And all that stuff, there’ll be some steps forward and some steps backwards. It happens in basketball. But the long-range plan is to be the best team we can be in the Asia Cup in Cebu.”
