Baldwin praises Sotto's 'heart' in Gilas debut vs Korea
MANILA, Philippines — A lot of positives could be taken away from Gilas Pilipinas' 81-78 win over South Korea in the third window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers on Wednesday.
One of them was the more than satisfactory debuts of Gilas first timers like Angelo Kouame, Carl Tamayo and RJ Abarrientos.
But the most anticipated debut was that of wunderkind Kai Sotto, who doned the Gilas jersey for the men's team for the first time.
Sotto earned praise from Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin after tallying 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes of action.
Rather than commending him for his numbers, though, Baldwin focused on the 19-year-old's push to contribute to the game despite struggling early.
"I think what we saw from Kai was a very young player who wasn't really well prepared, but what a heart he has," Baldwin said after the game.
"He was very disrupted by the physicality of Ratcliffe (Ra Gun-ah) and you know, what you saw was him making an adjustment and he started to deliver back and dish back the physicality... You just saw the determination in Kai to make an impact in the game," he added.
Sotto was a late addition to the Gilas Pilipinas camp in their training bubble in Calamba, Laguna after spending days in quarantine when he arrived from the US.
It was up in the air whether the Australia-bound hooper would even be able to play for Gilas in the qualifiers.
But now that he gets to be there for the team, Baldwin sees Sotto working harder to keep on making an impact amid being one of the younger guys on the team.
"You could see the fatigue, he's (Kai) only good for three to four minutes and he gets tired... [but] I think it's a pretty courageous effort by Kai. We're gonna see a lot better basketball for him as we move forward," said Baldwin.
Sotto and the rest of Gilas Pilipinas plunge back into action on Friday against Indonesia at 6 p.m.
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