Smart Gilas will play six or seven games in 10 days against tough clubs in Serbia, which should be a good gauge on how much the national developmental team has developed so far.
The team, which is looking to clinch a spot in the 2012 London Olympics, left for Belgrade on Sunday.
“This will provide us a chance to find out whether the team has really improved,” said Serbian coach Rajko Toroman, who also accompanied the team in Serbia last year where his young squad dropped five of their seven tune-up games.
“This [trip] is definitely a big challenge on the players, on how they have improved so far,” he added.
The Serbian trip is also a good follow-up to their six-game Australian series which the Filipinos finished unbeaten.
The Filipino dribblers won against the Australian Under-19 team (78-67), the men’s team of Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) (79-73), Canberra Gunners (79-73), New South Wales Institute of Sports (82-63) and the Sydney Comets (93-81).
The only blemish in Smart Gilas’s record Down Under was its 73-all draw in its second meeting with AIS.
“These international games will prepare the team for the more important games ahead,” said Smart Gilas team manager Frankie Lim, referring to the upcoming Asian Games this year in November and the 2011 International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia Men’s Championship in Lebanon.
“We just have to keep on working,” Lim added.
Toroman said among those who showed improvement in their game in the Australian trip were Japeth Aguilar and six-foot-11 slotman Greg Slaughter, while Marco Lassiter showed promise.
The team is scheduled to play in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup in Doha, Qatar, in May and later in the Stankovic Cup in Beirut and William R. Jones Cup in Taiwan.
After Serbia, Lim said the team will fly to Las Vegas on April 23 for a nine-day basketball camp before proceeding to Vancouver, Canada, on a two-game, five-day trip.
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