The head coach of the Philippine national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas head coach, Tab Baldwin announced to the media on Tuesday that he will be trimming down the 26-man national pool of the national team to just 16 players. The Gilas Pilipinas squad will also start holding four to six-day tryouts starting August 1, 2015.
The American-New Zealander head coach of the Philippine basketball squad bared that after the tryouts of the 26-man national pool led by PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo and Talk ‘N Text combo guard Jayson Castro, the Gilas head coach will have to trim the number down to 16 players.
Coach Tab Baldwin hinted that the 16-man pool of Gilas Pilipinas will more likely be part of the training camp scheduled in August somewhere in Europe.
The Philippine Men’s Basketball team has one and a half months to cram its preparation for the FIBA-ASA Men’s Championship set to start on September 23 in Changsa, Hunan, China. The FIBA-Asia championship will serve as the official qualifying tournament for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.
The 57-year-old Tab Baldwin who led the New Zealand team in the semis of the 2002 FIBA World Championship, the best-ever performance of a team from Oceania, in the history so far. He was also responsible for the Lebanese national basketball team who won the title during the 2010 FIBA Stankovic Cup and earned a silver medal in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship as head coach of Jordan national basketball team.
Coach Tab Baldwin also revealed that the members of the Gilas Pilipinas national pool will get a maximum of 10 days rest immediately at the end of the PBA Governors Cup Finals.