THINGS are looking up for the Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 team a month before the 2020 Fiba 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).
That's the fair assessment of Serbian trainer Stefan Stojacic when the quartet finally convened on Wednesday at Ronac Living Gallery in Shaw.
"They are for sure going to be a competitive team. The OQT is going to be really hard, but there's a lot of work in front of us," he said.
Philippines' top-ranked 3x3 players Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol linked up with CJ Perez and Mo Tautuaa as the crew buckled down to work ahead of the tilt in Bengalore, India from March 18 to 22.
Onus, however, will be on Munzon and Pasaol to be the glue to the team as they try to quickly bring in Perez and Tautuaa to the 3x3 game.
"All of them are great but Alvin and Josh are going to be the biggest influence," said Stojacic, the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Tour MVP.
"CJ and Mo are new players in 3x3. They played in the SEA Games, but that tournament is totally different from the international level of playing 3x3. But they have quality and they're very good players. Now, we have to change their mindset to 3x3."
That was tested early as the squad fought against foreign studs in its first tuneup, composed of world no. 50 Marko Brankovic, no. 75 Nebojsa Kilijan, no. 116 Vladimir Trajkovic, and USA's no. 16 Marcus Hammonds.
Also helping out the trainings were top 10 players Troy Rike, Karl Dehesa, Franky Johnson, and Chris De Chavez.
The early returns bring in positive hope, but Stojacic still expects more from the Filipinos.
"There is a lot of work to be done because of their lack of experience in playing 3x3 and how the game is different than 5-on-5. We have a month more to prepare them for the 3x3 game," he said.
"I'm here to put them together to play 3x3 on an international level and how they will be competitive for the OQT."
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