DID you honestly believe we could win even just one game in Estonia?
If you say yes, you ought to enroll at AIM for Basketball 101. AIM to mean Acutely Imbalanced Mind.
Gilas went to Estonia to train and not to win. A win happening would just be a bonus. In short, train first, win second.
If that wasn’t the battle cry of Coach Tab Baldwin, we’ve got a huge problem in our hands.
Never mind that in his first outing as Gilas coach, Baldwin got shamed—if it can be called that. Winless in three games. Ugly from all angles if you will—that is, if Estonia was for conquest purposes and not part tourist outing or a full-course lesson on exposure trip.
So, get this: No, we didn’t go to Estonia to do battle against the Netherlands, Estonia and Iceland in that order.
We went to Estonia to be tested like guinea pigs. Those three countries aren’t even known as Class B cage powers.
We absorbed twin black eyes from the Netherlands (62-89) and Estonia (80-90), and lost a gift-in-the-making game to Iceland (76-86).
OK, could we have beaten Iceland if Calvin Abueva, Jimmy Alapag and Ranidel de Ocampo played?
Maybe yes, maybe not.
Estonia wasn’t the real McCoy. The test tubes there weren’t of atomic bomb stuff.
If we ever learned something of import there, it is that there is much pencil-sharpening to do for Baldwin.
Andray Blatche is still out of shape.
Cohesiveness is sorely lacking. Understandable.
Every well-meaning coach will say the candidates barely know each other. Except for the carryover veterans from the 2013-2014 Gilas variety (Castro, de Ocampo, Alapag, David, Norwood), the rest are still in the getting-to-know-you mode.
It is in the Taiwan Jones Cup set from August 29 to September 6 that the real fireworks could really begin for Gilas.
Unlike in Estonia, where jelling was the primary consideration, it is pride and honor that should spur Gilas to make a go of it in the Jones Cup, which is a perennial test for Filipino dexterity in a game we venerate with near-blind passion next only to the Roman Catholic religion.
The Taiwan test will gauge how far Gilas could go in China from September 23 to October 3.
Now, may I ask you another question: Do you honestly believe we could win that ticket in Changsha City to get us to the 2016 Rio Olympics?
I know you have serious doubts because Gilas has to contend with giants China, Iran and Lebanon, not to mention regular KJs South Korea and even Japan.
Same here.
THAT’S IT. With the Final 12 to compose the Gilas Team yet to be named, can it be safely said this early that Marc Pingris, absent in Estonia, will make it back to the squad? That is a question which answer could only come from Tab Baldwin, who had essentially said the 6-foot-5 Star power forward is a shoo-in before Pingris created a mini tsunami surge when he backed out of the pool to miss the recent Gilas trip. Star Manager Rene Pardo had asked Pingris to reconsider. A good soldier that he is, and putting country above personal interest, Pingris obliged.