GILAS Pilipinas takes on Turkey in the first of two friendlies scheduled ahead of its campaign in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Coach Tim Cone said the back-to-back tune-up matches will help the national team grasp where it is right now in its preparation for the qualifiers set next week.
Cone thought Gilas wasn't exactly in the groove yet based on the outcome of its earlier friendly against the visiting Taiwan Mustangs.
The nationals beat the Mustangs, 74-64, Monday night at the Philsports Arena.
"I hope to see improvement, I hope to see us get better on both sides of the ball. We didn't play as sharp as we wanted," said Cone following the game.
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The Philippines-Turkey friendly is scheduled Friday at 1 a.m. in Istanbul.
The 12 Dev Adam (12 Giant Men), ranked no. 24 in the world, are not seeing action in the qualifiers but accepted the friendly against Gilas in preparation to the ongoing EuroBasket qualifiers.
Cone doesn't see the Turkish team fielding in some of their NBA players in the tune up match including veteran Cedi Osman, Onuralp Bitim, Furkan Kurkmaz, Alperen Sengun, and Omer Yurtseven.
"Turkey is no. 24, but they're much better if their NBA guys show up," said the Gilas coach.
"I don't know if their NBA guys are gonna show up because they're not preparing for the OQT (in Valencia, Spain). Turkey's just preparing for the Euro qualifiers."
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Still Turkey remains a formidable lot that parades a pair of 7-footers in Ercan Osmani and Sertac Sanli.
After Turkey, Gilas will face no. 15 Poland on June 30. Like the Filipinos, the Polish are competing in the Valencia, Spain OQT where they are bracketed in Group B with Finland and Bahamas.
Gilas arrived in Turkey early Wednesday morning and had its first practice session at the Turkish Airlines Arena.(RG)
