GILAS STARTS ROAD TO THE GOLD IN KOREA
Eighteen days after its last game in the FIBA World Cup, Gilas Pilipinas plunges back into action Tuesday versus Kazakhstan or India, starting its gold-medal quest in the 17th Asian Games.
After taking world top-ranked opponents to the wire in Spain, expectations are high Gilas Pilipinas will do better in Incheon, Korea with a strong chance of ending a long 52-year gold-medal drought in the quadrennial games.
Narrowly losing games against Croatia, Argentina and Puerto Rico then going all the way to beat Senegal, the Nationals could well hurdle the test to be provided by their regional rivals and sustain the steady rise of Team PHL in international play.
The Nationals are determined to go all the way to the top after breaking into the Top Four in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship, duplicating the performance in the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup and then reaching the finals in the 2013 Asian meet.
Coach Chot Reyes and his troops have sized up the opposition in their third-place finish in the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan, China before meeting naturalized player Andray Blatche in Miami to start their training for the world championship.
Though not in full force minus Blatche, Jayson Castro, Jimmy Alapag, Marc Pingris and Jeff Chan, the Nationals made a good run, posting a 5-1 win-loss record highlighted by an 80-79 nail-biter over China in the bronze-medal match.
Their lone loss came at the hands of Iran in the semifinals.
But, again, Gilas didn’t field its full team in Wuhan.
Reyes assembled all the members of his pool only in Miami a week later, beginning a journey culminated by a proud showing against some of the world’s best in Seville, Spain.
They’re bringing over to the Asiad soaring confidence and high level of competitiveness developed in their serious buildup and actual participation in the world joust.
The difference is Marcus Douthit is the one playing the center spot for Gilas in Incheon. The Gilas coach said they’re approaching their Asiad games a bit different from their Seville games with Andray Blatche as naturalized player.
For Douthit is a pure post player while Blatche is a lot more active, stronger, can attack the basket off the dribble and has a touch all the way from the three-point land.
The homegrown Gilas players nonetheless are confident they can contend for the gold with Douthit, who can be banked on for his familiarity with the team, with the Asian powers and the competition.
“With Douthit or with Blatche, our aim is to win the gold medal and nothing less than that,” said forward Ranidel de Ocampo, who is neither fazed by their tough bracket with Iran and either Kazakhstan or India.
“We’ll just deal with what we have to deal,” said De Ocampo. “Dadaanan at dadaanan mo rin naman yan if you go all the way to fight for the gold medal.”
The top eight in the last Asian Games are seeded into the preliminary round with the rest of the participants needing to go through the qualifying round with only four to make the preliminaries.
China and Chinese Taipei were bracketed in Group C, South Korea and Jordan in Group D, the Philippines and Iran in Group E, and Japan and Qatar in Group F. Each group will be joined by a team from the qualifiers and they play one round with two advancing to the quarterfinals.
Thus, Gilas Pilipinas must at least split its games against Iran and versus a qualifier (which is likely to be Kazakstan) to advance to the Last Eight.
In the quarters, the eight remaining teams will be divided into two groups, playing another round to determine the crossover semifinal pairing.
And it could well be China, Iran, South Korea and Gilas Pilipinas.
The Chinese are looking to stretch their Asiad reign following victories in Doha in 2006 and Guangzhou in 2010, the Koreans are hoping to repeat their title run at home in Busan in 2002 while the Iranians are out to win the only regional crown that they haven’t won.
Gilas has its own lofty goal.
Second placers to Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asian Championship, the Nationals want to be second to none in Incheon. (SB)
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