Baldwin: 1st game key in Gilas bid

MANILA, Philippines - It’s the first game of Gilas Pilipinas that will dictate its chances in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) which the country will host on July 4 to 10 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Coach Tab Baldwin yesterday stressed that “It’s the first game.”

The American coach said winning the opening match, against whoever is on the opposite end of the floor, will be the key to the country’s hopes of making it to the Rio Olympics.

“In a very short tournament like this, you must come out winning,” he said during yesterday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s Malate.

As of presstime last night, nobody knew which among the 18 teams will be flying in for the Manila OQT. Five foreign teams are coming in.

It’s possible that two teams from Europe, like France (No. 5) or Greece (No. 10) and one each from Africa, like Angola (No. 15) or Senegal (No. 31) will be bracketed with the Philippines.

A couple more teams from Africa and the Americas may be bracketed with the Philippines.

Italy and Serbia will host the two other OQTs. The drawing of lots was scheduled at 1:30 a.m. today (Manila time) in Geneva

Baldwin said since he doesn’t have any control over the draw, there’s no reason for him to stay up and sleep.

“I’m not going to lose sleep from one to seven in the morning whether Greece is coming or not coming. I have no control over that,” he said.

Seriously, the Gilas head coach, who almost steered the Philippines to the FIBA Asia gold last year, said he’s more concerned on whoever they will play first.

“Really I’m just worried about who we will be playing in our first game in the tournament,” he said at the forum where he was joined by Gilas team manager Butch Antonio.

But whether it’s Greece, Canada, France or the Czech Republic, he assured Pinoy fans that Gilas Pilipinas will be ready.

“We will commit our coaching and intellectual resources in our preparation time to winning that first game,” he said.

Gilas should focus on the first match because it’s the match that they can prepare for.

Baldwin was pressed to issue a forecast or a prediction on how Gilas Pilipinas would fare in the OQT and hope to land in the Olympics for the first time since 1972.

“I don’t have any answer on what our chances I believe,” he said.

“As I’ve said before the Philippine team is capable of winning every offensive and defensive possession in the game and we’re capable of losing them as well. We just need to win more than we lose,” he said.

“If we do that we’ll advance each step of the way. I don’t look at any opponent as an unclimbable mountain,” said Baldwin.