Busy 2022 schedule to boost Gilas' World Cup preps — Baldwin

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas is expecting a very busy schedule come next year, with a lot of international competitions lined up.

Due to the postponement of the FIBA Asia Cup in Indonesia to mid-2022, the men's national team will be plowing through a number of tournaments in a short time.

Although it is daunting to face such a full schedule of high-level basketball, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Inc. program director Tab Baldwin welcomes it as a key factor in preparing for the FIBA World Cup that the country is set to host in 2023.

"What it really does is it puts an extremely heavy schedule into 2022 — the windows, the Asia Cup, the Asian Games, and the Southeast Asian Games," said Baldwin of the Asia Cup postponement on Noli Eala's Power & Play Saturday.

"So we have a very full schedule which is exciting but it also means that we've got a lot of work to do to get prepared for that, but it's a great way to head into 2023 which is the world cup year," he added.

For the program director, Gilas players getting exposed to different teams in different competitions will help them to amp up their skills and experience before going up against the world's best in 2023.

"We're going to get a lot of information, a lot of preparation and it's exactly what we need," said Baldwin.

"We're looking forward to it," he added.

Gilas last competed in the King Abdullah Cup in Jordan where they reached the semifinals.

The pocket tournament was supposedly a warm-up competition for the FIBA Asia Cup initially slated this August.