Gilas in Belgrade, Part 1: A look at the Philippines in the FIBA OQT

As you already know, the Philippine men’s national basketball team is already in Belgrade, Serbia to take part in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

With one of the last four spots to Tokyo up for grabs, it will be the last chance saloon for coach Tab Baldwin and for the 31^st-ranked Gilas, alongside the host nation, Italy, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Senegal in which all eight games will be played at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall (also known as Pionir), one of Europe’s fabled basketball arenas.

They will make their debut in the competition against the fifth ranked Serbians of former Eurobasket champion Igor Kokoskov in the wee hours of July 1^st, and will face 19^th ranked Dominican Republic the following day to cap off Group A play.

But how do we get here?

Actually, we do not deserve to be here in the first place, no thanks to the disaster that is the most recent FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019, where that edition of Gilas led by coach Yeng Guiao stumbled and fell all the way to the wooden spoon by losing all five games and finishing dead last of the 32 teams, initially denying us even a spot at the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments back then.

However, almost two years later, we got another shot in ending the 48-year drought in appearing at the game’s premier competition as the Philippines were given another chance by FIBA when one of the original recipients of the OQT spots withdrew. The Tall Blacks of New Zealand, ranked 25^th in the FIBA rankings, had decided to end their quest at the already-postponed Summer Olympics in February after its federation decided to cut costs and turned its attention to the next cycle in Paris 2024, including the next Basketball World Cup that we will host the year before.

With the new lease of life, coach Baldwin and Gilas went on a tear at the third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in Pampanga, when they made massive headlines at the back pages by getting two huge wins over archrivals South Korea en route to sweeping not just their three-game schedule, but also the entire Group A when they came out unscathed in all six of its games.

And also, Baldwin had another chance of finally notching a win at the OQT, in which he was unfortunate to lose both to France and his former team in 2016 when the country hosted one of those tourneys.

The Squad

With Thursday’s announcement of the final 12 that will take on the likes of Boban Marjanovic and Nico Mannion, coach Baldwin made no adjustments at all and stuck to his usual squad that swept its way into the Asia Cup matches that were familiar with his system.

The UP duo of Javi Gomez de Liano and Jaydee Tungcab, and Ateneo High School’s Francis Lopez were the unfortunate final cuts, but there’s no turning back now to Gilas who are youthful in both ends of the court as evidenced by their average age of 22.

Both aged 25, captain Isaac Go and lefty guard Jordan Heading will provide leadership and calming presence, especially with the latter who was the lone pro in the lineup as he started his career with ABL’s Alab Pilipinas who had former Gilas skipper Jimmy Alapag manning the sidelines.

With seven of them are at least at the team average of six-foot-six, Gilas is banking not just on the towering troika of Justine Baltazar, Ange Kouame and the seven-foot-one Kai Sotto, but also to the playmaking of Dwight Ramos and SJ Belangel, with 20-year-old revelation Carl Tamayo relishing a new role playing at the three-spot.

Baldwin’s impetus on balanced scoring and team-oriented basketball, never left out the likes of RJ Abarrientos, Geo Chiu, Will Navarro and Mike Nieto who were also reliable when called upon even if they only play a minor role.

What to expect?

To be honest, we will not be dreaming high for this OQT as coach Tab and his staff always plays for the long game, in which they made sure that they will never lose focus at the main goal which is the home-stand in 2023.

This sojourn in Serbia is one of the learning process in this current generation of Gilas, wherein they will cap off their three-month stretch in the FIBA Asia Cup in August in Indonesia. But seeing their prowess in Pampanga, they will make sure that they will fight for every possession each and every time.

However, miracles can happen in sport and basketball is one of them. Whatever happens at the Pionir will be a huge experience for Gilas regardless of the result.
PHOTOS:FIBA