SINGAPORE (2015 FIBA Asia Championship) - Gilas Cadets stormed to the title at the SEABA Championship last month in Singapore under new coach Tab Baldwin and the Filipinos will be looking for more of the same when they compete in the same country at the 28th SEA Games over the next several days.

The Olympic style event has everyone in the region buzzing about sports.

For the men's basketball competition, in Group A are Gilas, Malaysia, Indonesia and Timor Leste while in Group B with Singapore are Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Singapore coach Neo Beng Siang is glad his players are not having to face Gilas Cadets or Malaysia in the opening phase.

"We avoided the two strongest opponents and that's the advantage for us," he said.

Desmond Oh, a veteran shooting guard in the Singapore team, says the team has to aim high.

"It's possible to get gold, if we work hard and do what coach says," he said.

If we execute everything as he plans, I believe that we can do it - Oh

Baldwin's squad, however, is the clear favorite.

The coach just wants to see his youthful squad continue to play good basketball.

They will open their campaign against Indonesia on Wednesday.

"I think we're ready. We've had three months together and the team's trained well," he said.

"They've worked hard.

"They've got a very good SEABA performance behind them to give them confidence, just hopefully not too much confidence."

As for the tag of being the prohibitive favorites, Baldwin said: "I'm not really concerned about those kinds of perceptions of how we should win. The important thing is we go there and we treat each opponent with respect."

Baldwin will be taking a different team to the FIBA Asia Championship later this year in Changsha-Hunan.

Malaysia and Singapore also qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship by finishing second and third at the SEABA Championship.

FIBA