PBA players needed in nat'l team, says Jones Cup champion coach

TAIPEI – Based on what he saw in the just-concluded Jones Cup, coach Bo Perasol thinks PBA players are needed in the national team if the Philippines is to stay competitive in Asian basketball.

“We need to get the best and our best are in the PBA. We can’t compete if we don’t get the best. And we need ample time to train them together,” said Perasol whose Mighty Sports Apparels team topped the 38th Jones Cup via an eight-game sweep with the help of seven imports.

He saw up close the training teams of Iran, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan already competing while Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas is still mulling the right formula to form the national team for the next qualifying event for the World Championship.

“I think the competition is getting tighter and tighter every year. They’re big, quick and have got a very unique system and the trademark Asian shooting ability with a very high conversion percentage,” said Perasol.

“You don’t see that kind of efficiency in shooting in the Philippines. In them, you’ll see the quickness in movement, personal movement and really the high-percentage shooting,” added Perasol, amazed of the Iranians, the Koreans, the Taiwanese and the Japanese.

Mighty Sports reigned supreme here, winning a fifth Jones Cup crown for the Philippines largely on the superior skills of imports Dewarick Spencer, Al Thornton, Hamady N’Diaye, Mike Singletary, Vernon Macklin, Zach Graham and Troy Gillenwater.

“Superior skills (by the imports) compensated for our lack of many things. The problem for our national team, we don’t have that superiority against our Asian rivals,” said Perasol.

“In terms of playing skills, we can keep up with them because our basketball tournaments are all-year round. Knowledge and skills, it’s a given especially as we have a big man (in naturalized player Andray Blatche). But we need the PBA players and the ample time to train together,” Perasol insisted.

SBP vice president Al Panlilio and PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa have had talks in regards the formation of the next national team. SBP is looking at the revival of the Gilas cadet team with the conflict of the new FIBA format and calendar with the PBA’s.

The same is the case for most of the other FIBA Asia national federations.

“We have most of our best players playing in the CBA (Chinese league). We have players playing in the US collegiate league and some in our home league. The problem now is how to gather them and train with FIBA’s new home-and-away format,” said a Chinese Taipei basketball official.

Iran, Korea and Japan face the same dilemma.

As for Mighty Sports, the direction is to continue to compete in pocket international competition while also considering participation in the PBA D-League.

Mighty Sports Apparels was ruthless and unbending through the 38th Jones Cup basketball tournament, thumping Chinese Taipei B, 104-80, on final day to complete a grand sweep of the nine-team, one-round-robin competition.

With Troy Gillenwater and Zach Graham sidelined by injuries, the Mighty locals played more minutes and made marks as the Phl side swept its way to the championship.

They beat their rivals by a whopping average winning margin of 17.4 points, duplicating the Jones Cup romp of the Ron Jacobs-mentored Northern Consolidated Cement team in 1981.

With the other triumphs of the Phl squads here in 1985, 1998 and 2012, the Philippines moved back to second place behind the United States (15 championships) in the all-time Jones Cup medal ladder with a 5-1-3 gold-silver-bronze harvest. Iran slid back to third with 5-1-0.

Mighty Sports, backed by Scratch It and Symarom, became the third club team to deliver a Jones Cup triumph for the country after NCC in 1981 and San Miguel Beer in 1985.