NEWLY appointed Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin has already set high goals for the country’s popular national basketball team as he is targeting a gold medal in the next Fiba Asia Men’s Championship and a spot in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Baldwin was recently introduced officially as the new mentor for the Gilas after the resignation of former head coach Chot Reyes shortly after the Asian Games, where the team finished in seventh place, its worst ever in the history of the quadrennial competition.
With that failure in the rear view mirror already, the 56-year old American, who has held head coaching positions with New Zealand, Malaysia, Lebanon and the Jordan team that stunned Asian powerhouse Iran during the 2011 edition of the Fiba Asia, set into motion a plan that he hopes to culminate with the Filipinos playing in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil two years from now.
“I wanna see Gilas Pilipinas in Rio. I wanna be in the Olympics,” Baldwin was quoted as saying in a report on Inquirer.net.
The Philippines has not made it to the Olympic basketball competition since 1972. In order to change that, the Gilas must first win a gold in the 2015 Fiba Asia, a goal that Baldwin believes is very much achievable, especially since the team finished in second place to Iran in the same tournament last year.
“I want to see us have gold medals around our necks at the FIBA Asia qualifications. And those are the primary goals. I think if we achieve those, we won’t have too many problems figuring out the correct formula come 2017,” Baldwin added.
Baldwin has served as the Gilas consultant for over a year now. He was vital in the team’s preparations for the 2013 Fiba Asia as well as the 2014 Fiba World Cup where the Gilas turned heads with their courageous and gritty stands against some of the world’s top teams.