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dpinoycosmonaut · 6 years ago

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A PODIUM FINISH FOR GILAS WOULD BE PHENOMENAL

by Bert A. Ramirez / August 17, 2018

For all intents and purposes, Gilas Pilipinas, the glamor team of the Philippine delegation to the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s basketball competitions. After the Filipinos’ surprisingly easy 96-59 blowout victory over Kazakhstan last Thursday, it would take an upset of catastrophic proportions by the Kazakhs of powerhouse China for the Philippines to fail to make it among eight teams to qualify for the quarterfinal phase of the event.

As we were writing this, defending champion South Korea and Thailand are leading Group A with unbeaten slates of 2-0 and 1-0, respectively, 2014 runner-up Iran and Syria have advanced to the quarterfinals from Group B regardless of the result of their head-to-head matchup on August 25 after the United Arab Emirates, the only other team in their group, withdrew, while Chinese-Taipei (1-0), Japan (1-1) and Qatar (1-1) are engaged in a three-way battle for the two slots in Group C. The Philippines and the Chinese, fifth-placers in 2014, are now expected to make it from Group D regardless of the outcome of their game on Tuesday, August 21, as Kazakhstan is given no ghost of a chance to upset the Chinese, who are parading two NBA players – 7-foot-2 Zhou Qi of Houston and 6-7 Din Yanyuhang of Dallas – plus 7-foot, 270-pound center Wang Zhelin, 6-8 ethnic minority Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, and 6-2 Sun Minghu.

If the Filipinos, as the wise-money odds indicate, lose to the Chinese on Tuesday, they would be up against the topnotcher of Group A on August 27 in a knockout game to determine one of four semifinal slots. This will most likely be against South Korea, and the Filipinos’ chances to advance further would be effectively stymied if that happens as the Koreans, just like the Chinese, are a tough team to beat.

If, however, Gilas upsets the Chinese, the Filipinos’ chances of making it to the semis would be geometrically enhanced as they would be up against just either Thailand or perhaps Indonesia if the host country upsets the Thais or Mongolia. Either way, however, the Philippines would be a shoo-in for the semis as the three other Group A teams outside of South Korea are simply not in the class of the Filipinos.

But what are the chances of Gilas scoring a huge upset against the Chinese? Coach Yeng Guiao, on loan from NLEX to coach the core of the Rain or Shine team – his old team of six years no less – which was hastily called to represent the country when the core of the Gilas Pilipinas team was suspended after that FIBA World Cup Asia/Pacific qualifying game brawl against Australia early in July, said that the Filipinos are the definite underdogs against China, despite the last-minute clearance given by the NBA for Cleveland guard Jordan Clarkson to play for the country of his mother Annette Davis and grandmother Marcelina Tullao. It was one of the last-minute hurdles the team had to overcome beyond the earlier withdrawal decided by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas after the PBA earlier stuck to the original agreement to send only one team to the Asiad, which meant the Elastopainters with no reinforcements despite a request by Guiao to be given a few.

The public backlash, of course, was so fierce that the PBA, probably afraid of the effects of a league-induced Asiad absence to its already-dwindling drawing power, later relented, with five other players from other teams reinforcing the ROS core of Gabe Norwood, James Yap, Maverick Ahanmisi, Chris Tiu, Beau Belga and Raymond Almazan. The league allowed San Miguel Beer’s Christian Standhardinger, Magnolia’s Paul Lee, North Port’s (formerly Globalport) Stanley Pringle, Blackwater’s JP Erram and NLEX’s Asi Taulava to reinforce the ROS core in an attempt to give the country a decent representation, and perhaps improve on the Filipinos’ seventh-place finish in the event four years ago.

The question is, how good will this squad be with just two weeks to practice together and with Clarkson, the 6-4 Cavalier, coming in only as Gilas was pulverizing the Kazakhs last Thursday? Clarkson will finally be available against China, but chances are the Philippines will still play from behind against the Chinese, who are not only tall and big – two are seven-footers and three others are at least 6-8 – but are also young – their average age is 24.6 – and talented, with Zhou, Din, Wang, Abudushalamu and Sun representing a tremendous upgrade from that inexperienced squad that placed fifth in Incheon, South Korea four years ago.

“Of course, we have to admit na talagang favorite sila,” the 59-year-old Guiao said. “But we may have cut a little of the odds. It’s still a powerhouse team. We are just a team that kumbaga hastily set up. Even if we have Jordan Clarkson, we are still going to be the underdogs. As I said, if we (were a) 100 to 1 underdog before, baka 100 to 20 na, nadagdagan ‘yung odds sa atin.”

But Guiao would be in there trying to upset the odds. After all, there’s no use playing if one doesn’t believe he has at least a chance to win.

“The more important thing is we feel that we have a chance to win. Dati parang wala talagang chance. (Now) we feel that we have a chance to win. The more important thing is to keep the game close, be aggressive for 40 minutes, and try to duplicate the defense that we played against Kazakhstan,” said the veteran mentor, who also coached the national team in the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship, three of whose players – Yap, Taulava and Norwood – are reunited with him in this year’s Asiad campaign.

If the Filipinos do advance past the quarterfinals, they’d surely be improving on that prosaic seventh-place finish where Gilas coach Chot Reyes at one point ordered his players to shoot at their own basket in a futile attempt to get a more favorable quotient. But dreaming of a medal finish – as Clarkson has expressed, perhaps so naively – is a different story altogether. This is because the teams in the way – China and, after that, most likely South Korea if they fall to the Chinese – make the odds really daunting. It will take a lot of luck, and a perfect storm, for that podium finish to materialize and make this campaign really phenomenal and the stuff from which legends are born.

(Photo from Chris Tiu's INSTAGRAM account)

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