Thursday, June 24, 2021

The Future

The kids are all right (photo: Spin.ph)

Just earlier this evening, the Ateneo-led, all-amateur Gilas Pilipinas Men's Basketball Team is flying out to Belgrade, Serbia to compete in the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers. The team will be facing off against the hometown heroes and later on against the Domincan Republic. To say that this will be a tall order, would probably fit the bill both figuratively and literally.

So what are the expectations so far? 

Well, it would be nice if our boys could salvage a win, or at the very least, keep in step with these teams that are bringing in legitimate NBA players (Serbia has three to four if I remember correctly, including the titan-sized Boban Marjanovic).

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this team in the recent Clark Bubble. Sure, Tab Baldwin's back as the full time head coach, but they were missing some U.P. firepower by the names of Kobe Paras and Juan Gomez De Liano. To make up for this, they brought in more guys from Ateneo, while adding in representatives from DLSU and FEU. You'll have to forgive us for not being all too familiar with these kids outside of those who've already played a year in college. 

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