Gilas on Italy’s radar screen

NAPLES, Italy — Gilas Pilipinas is definitely on the Italian Basketball Federation's radar screen not just because they are groupmates in the 2023 World Cup in Manila.

The Italian Basketball Federation, through its chief communications officer Francesco D'Aniello, is fully aware of what the Philippines is up to in its run-up for the 25 August to 10 September cagefest.

"You have this tall player (Kai Sotto), Jordan Clarkson and another very good American, (Justin) Brownlee," D'Aniello said.

Bunched with the Dominican Republic and Angola, Italy and the Philippines are set to square off on 29 August.

Gilas is now in Europe getting ready to commence its camp with tune-up games against Estonia and Finland on tap and a taste of Lithuania's brand of hoops likewise on the table for the underrated Filipinos.

While the Philippines is already in training mode, Italy has yet to show up for practice and will only do so on 24 July at Folgaria in Trentino since the Italian championships had just concluded.

Olympia Milano, the team of several national team candidates, just won over Virtus Bologna, another squad that also has several top players.

The road to Manila is lined up with many big games for Italy.

In total, the Italians will play seven matches against solid squads like Turkey and China on home soil, Serbia and Greece in Athens, Puerto Rico on Italian territory and finally Brazil and New Zealand in Shenzhen.

On 22 August, head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco and the Italian stallions will touch down in Manila and make their debut against Angola on 25 August.

One thing is clear, though.

Italy knows it has to live up to its world No. 10 rating to survive the initial volley of gunfire.