FIBA Asia Championships: the good things about 4th place

News: Korea beats the Philippines

The 2012 Olympic dream for the Smart-Gilas is over and the 4th place finish is actually one of our best finishes in recent years. Here is some good things that I think of after the loss.

1. Manny V. Pangilinan or MVP will be able to save up some money for other sports and charity. If the Gilas won then he would have to bankroll the Gilas' campaign in a tougher Olympic qualifier. He can use the money to pay for the boxers and the taekwondo jins who could have better shot of an olympic medal than the basketball team. He can even use the money to buy an NBA team. ;)

2. We lost to a familiar foe. Korea and the Philippines are evenly matched but it seems that we are cursed against those Koreans. We seem to lose in the final minutes of the game. At least, there was nothing new about the game. I was at the edge of my seat watching the 3rd place battle on TV with Olsen "Crying" Racela being the color commentator. Of all the people that they chose, why him? I'm sure Olsen was crushed watching a heartbreaker do over.

3. It is gonna be an exciting PBA season. The Gilas draftees will surely crowd the PBA rookie of the Year race (if they are considered rookies).

4. Respect. Somehow we got the respect of our Asian neighbors now. They cannot take us lightly once we learn how to win in crunchtime then they better be ready to bow to the future brown kings of Asian basketball soon.

5. National team formula. Our system is working and coach Toroman has elevated our standards. I hope that the Iranians will not try to snatch him back. We probably have the best center in Asia performance-wise. We just need to surround him with a mix of pros and trainee amateurs. Slaughter, Ravena, and Parks should be integrated to Gilas as early as next year. We need to have a new Alapag (a fast PG who is a dead-eye in the 3 point region). If only Alapag was 3 inches taller..hehehe.

It is sad but basketball is still the No.1 team sport in the country. No offense to football but we are No.4 in Asia in this sport. We just can't give up this slot for a sport where we are just No.4 in Southeast-Asia.  The future of Philippine basketball might not be as rosy but the Gilas program should be continued and we should stop the habit of rebuilding often. We have to add on to the Gilas and hopefully the PBA and MVP's rival San Miguel will help.

26th FIBA Asia Championship: GIlas playing sans Lassiter, Lutz

NEWS: Gilas plays without Lutz, Lassiter

The Pilipinas Smart-Gilas played its first 3 games in the 26th FIBA Asia Championship for Men in Wuhan, China without wingmen Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter. The result? A 2-1 record. The Gilas beat UAE and Bahrain but fell to the taller Chinese basketball team.

It is quite sad that eligibility issues were only addressed on the eve of the competitions. The Philippines along with middle-eastern power Qatar were most affected. Qatar had 5 players ruled ineligible. Some quarters think that these developments were politically motivated. The one handling the issue is from Lebanon, one of the teams that expect to figure well in this year's tourney.

Some people say that Lebanon is scared to face the Philippines and Qatar. Maybe. It is not nice to see that games are decided in the boardroom rather than in the basketball court. The Philippines is probably a top 6 team with the 2 "barred" players. Without them, the semifinal hopes can be dim.

I know that the SBP leadership will exhaust all means to make them eligible in the next rounds of the championships. Hopefully, they will succeed. If not, then it will have a bigger impact on the recruitment process for the future national teams. A lot of our prized recruits are half-Filipinos. If the issues are not clarified, then the Gilas program will be left in shambles.

Let see what happens in the next few days...

Rebuilding Smart-Gilas

7 members of the Smart-Gilas will be joining the PBA Draft led by JV Casio. Casio along with fellow guard Marc Barroca, Fil-Foreigners Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz, Dylan Ababou, Jason Ballesteros, and Marc Baracael will soon be donning PBA jerseys instead of the national colors. The loss of this 7 players has a major impact on how we form a national team.


Who's left? We have Marcus Douhit, the naturalized player who is manning center. Chris Tiu, who decided to stick it out with Gilas.  Greg Slaughter and Aldrech Ramos who both are on leave from the Gilas due to the current UAAP season. Japeth Aguilar is still a question mark since he is actually signed with the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters. 


It will be recruitment time again for the Gilas. After years of developing chemistry and cohesion, it seems that the Philippines might reverting to the old practice of just getting PBA players to form a national team. A practice that has not won a major title in the Asian level. the current crop of Gilas has not won major title as well so I guess our basketball leaders are trying to formulate a new plan. 


If we look at the best teams in the world, they do not actually have a full-time national team. Countries allow their national team players to play in the NBA or the European leagues to develop their skills and be competitive all year round. I think for us to succeed, we should let our players play in the tougher leagues. We just cannot put them in the PBA in get that false sense of stardom. They might even think they are superstars yet when they play against the best of Asia, they usually come up short. The PBA is too small and it limits the development of some players. With a smaller pool of players, we will have limited choices for the national team. 


The SBP should start encouraging Filipinos to play in US NCAA.  They can develop a program that will send the best high school or college players to tryout in the US.  These players will provide a steady stream of talent for the national team. The UAAP and the other Philippine college leagues will still be breeding grounds but the best should be trained in tougher competitions earlier in their careers. 


The best of the Philippine islands cannot compete with the best of Asia anymore.  It is time for us to send our best abroad and become better players and world-beaters. ;)

Gilas bow to Iran in Jones Cup semis

The Smart-Gils lost its semifinals match-up in the 33rd William Jones Cup against Middle Eastern power Iran, 59-78.  The Iranians totally dominated the inside and nobody in the Philippine line-up can contain NBA Veteran Hamad Haddadi who almost outscored the whole Philippine team at one point. He finished with 36 points.

Well, a different kind of Iranian team faced the Smart-Gilas this time. The Gilas were playing minus JV Casio who has been their main sniper in the tournament. His absence was visible and the replacements were ineffective. Douhit and the other big guys were having a hard time guarding Hadadi.

So, what does this mean? Not much, I guess. The real battle will be next month but the signs are not good. The lack of height and heft will really show in the big games. The Gilas will be eaten alive inside. Douhit is passable but after him? How can we improve in a month? Will Kelly Williams help? A little perhaps.

It is also annoying to see that players like Slaughter are getting ticky-tacky calls that will not be called in events like Fiba Asia. We have to toughen up our biggies as early as college. If the Philippines want to succeed, they have to discourage centers or power forwards who look like who is on a diet. Lanky dudes are good for modeling but for tough games, they should put a minimum playing weight for our guys. Hire people like Alex Ariza to teach speed with the added weight. I am sure we can create better big men in the future.

As for the 2012 Olympic Dreams, it is the time to show the world the power of prayers. ;)

Jones Cup: Philippines fall to 3-2 after losing to South Korea

From Inquirer.net: Casio heriocs not enough

For the second time in 3 days, the well-funded Smart-Gilas lost a game in the 33rd William Jones Cup held in Taipei. First, they lost to Jordan and now to old nemesis, South Korea. I am sure a lot of people are asking if the country has what it takes to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Is there hope? Probably, as the saying goes "bilog ang bola!".

Realistically though, our chance are very slim. Look at the progress of our Asian neighbors. The Middle Eastern teams have developed so fast that we have a hard time matching up with their size. The traditional powers like China and Korea are still there.  It is nice of MVP (Manny V. Pangilinan) to fund Gilas but I think he knows as well that we need a lot of prayers for our team to top the olympic qualifiers. Where do we lack?

1. Size- The acquisition of Marcus Douhit somehow made the problem less visible but once he gets into foul trouble like he usually does, we are screwed. Who else do we have? Asi? The old-reliable Asi is simply too old to be effective in more than 15 minutes intense basketball. Greg Slaughter is more of a developmental center for now.

2. Player availability - Well, Jimmy Alapag and Kelly Williams were supposed to be with the team. Where are they? They are in the PBA Finals. They are paid to win the PBA grand slam above the Jones Cup. How can they become comfortable with their teammates if they are not with the team? It was too ambitious for Gilas to aim for 2012 Olympics. 2016 perhaps would have been a better goal and they should have locked in those young players for another 4 years. Lo and behold, the Gilas youngsters are joining the PBA Draft. Who do we have left then? Even the players I guess are moving to the pros sensing that there will be no 2012 games for the Gilas. Will these players even give it all in September to risk injury and lucrative PBA careers? I hope they do but there are still no guarantees.

3. Shooting - The Gilas is not the tallest team out there and to counter we must have amazing speed or sniper-like outside shooting.  Gone are the days that the best shooter in Asia is from the Philippines (Caidic). JV Casio has potential but other than him, I cannot find someone really consistent in making those long range bombs. They have to make the opponents respect our shooting to open up the lanes. Maybe to encourage this, we should add new lines in our leagues and make the 3-point line into a 4 point line and the a feet or 2 below it will be the new 3 point line. Our young players are so fixated with dunks and fast breaks that they only realize how hard it is to dunk when facing world-class opposition. We can have the best screens in the game but without a reliable shooters, it will just be for naught. 

It is hard to see the Philippines be disappointed again in the basketball court. I do not like seeing them lose but they have lost a lot in recent years and the voices that are saying that we shift to football are getting louder. I cannot blame them but if we shift to football, it will take us decades to just match where we are in basketball right now. It would be a sorry day when the Philippines will be beaten by the Thais, Malaysians, or Vietnamese in the basketball court. Basketball has the infrastructure already that even our football leaders want to emulate in the country. We just can't say stop playing basketball and start kicking soccer balls. We invested so much already. Hopefully those billions of pesos will not go to waste.