Coach Tab Baldwin sees Gilas Pilipinas’ clash against host Serbia in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) on Thursday, July 1, as a major learning experience as his young guns face the likes of Milos Teodosic.

The oldest among all Serbian players for the OQT, the 34-year-old Teodosic is expected to give the Philippines’ backcourt a hard time as he possesses unrivaled experience in international play.

“[W]e want to learn lessons,” said Baldwin. “We want to realize that you’re going up against a master of the game.”

“There are things that you can learn from the big picture when you go back and review the video, but also you want to test yourself and what you can learn from possession to possession.”

A star in the European circuit, Teodosic boasts of numerous individual accolades, including a EuroLeague MVP award and a FIBA Europe Player of the Year plum.

While playing for Serbia, the crafty guard helped the team win silver medals in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and 2014 FIBA World Cup.

Teodosic joined the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA for two seasons before he returned to Europe, where he currently plays for Virtus Bologna in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A.

“Everything he does well, you try and counter as quickly as you can and we do that in the scouting reports,” Baldwin said.

“We try to prepare our players, but there is nothing like actually going out there and standing toe to toe with some of these Serbian players.”

Although predictions have the Serbians imposing their will on the Filipinos, Baldwin said his players will have picked up valuable lessons by the time the final buzzer sounds off.

“There is a level of excitement for our players and there is also a great challenge,” Baldwin said.

“I think as long as we respect those thought process, I think the players will enjoy the process but they’ll also find out a lot of themselves and what they need to learn and to improve themselves.” – Rappler.com