Team Pilipinas have reasons to both be confident and wary against its upcoming FIBA World Cup Qualifiers match against Kazakhstan tomorrow.
For the positives, Gilas Pilipinas can look at its 96-59 rout of the Kazakhs three months ago at the Asian Games as that game was a complete domination.
Probably, this is the reason why the Nationals remain upbeat heading to the important tussle at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We’re positive. We’d want to prove that we can do better and we can compete well against them,” said Gabe Norwood, one of the key mainstays of the team. “Our main concern is to find a way to win against Kazakhstan and I’m confident that we can find that.”
At the same time, there are concerns as well for Gilas Pilipinas as it only won a single game in its four tune-up games these past two weeks.
For Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao, that’s a concern that he and his troops are addressing to avoid losing when it matters.
“We’re still a work in progress. Seeing how we played in the tune-ups, we’re working on how to get ourselves better,” shared Guiao.
As for the Philippines’ triumph in Asian Games over Kazakhstan, Guiao said that complacency still has no place.
“We can’t be complacent against Kazakhstan,” said Guiao. “We should expect more from them as for sure, they’ve made adjustments after what they experienced against us in the Asian games.”
For Guiao, the clear advantage that his team has is its returning sixth man, the crowd.
“Support from our countrymen will be big. It will boost us. That’s something we missed in our last home game,” said Guiao