By REYNALD MAGALLON
With its group stage rivals finally known, Gilas Pilipinas can now turn its focus on building its pathway in the lead up to the 2023 FIBA World Cup which would also include training camps overseas in June.
Facing a daunting task of getting past the group stage after being bracketed with world No. 10 Italy, No. 24 Dominican Republic and No. 41 Angola in Group A, Gilas preparations, through a series of overseas trips, will be geared towards forming the best team and building the chemistry to compete against its group stage rivals.
“We already have a couple. We will announce when it’s finalized, (probably) towards the middle of June or end of June,” bared Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes as he hopes to replicate the preparations done by the national team when it first returned to the world stage in the 2014 World Cup in Spain.
The then Nationals led by Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, Andray Blatche, Ranidel de Ocampo and Gabe Norwood went to a series of training camps in Miami before joining a couple of pocket tournaments against fellow World Cup-bound teams in France and in Spain.
“I think that’s going to be the most important because that’s what we were able to do in 2014, right? I thought we were able to put in a very good tuneup preparation schedule, so when it came, World Cup time in 2014, we were playing at a very high level,” recalled Reyes.
“Hopefully we can get to that level again this time,” he added.
Getting such quality preparation would be vital for Gilas, according to Reyes, as that will say a lot whether Gilas could get back against the familiar foes who have beaten it in the past.
The Filipinos played the Italians and Angolans in the 2019 World Cup while Gilas faced the Dominican Republic in the 2021 Olympic Qualifying tournament.
“It goes both ways. We know them, they know us as well. There’s going to be a few surprises but in the end that is going to be determined by how well we can prepare, how well we can get together, play together and how many quality tune up games we can get before the actual World Cup.”
Reyes, however, insisted that achieving the same level of preparation and cohesion as the 2014 Gilas team won’t still be enough and should be surpassed by the current team if it wishes to pull off some surprises against the obviously more favored teams in its group. “I think if we come in with the
