New challenge for Uichico

For over 20 years, Jong Uichico was a coaching fixture in the PBA, moving from San Miguel Beer to Barangay Ginebra to Meralco and finally, to TNT KaTropa. Wherever he was a head coach, Uichico managed to bring home a conference title to his team. With San Miguel, Uichico bagged six crowns. With Ginebra, he took two. And with TNT, Uichico won his last title, the 2015 Commissioner’s Cup. The two-time PBA Coach of the Year (2000, 2007) missed out on a championship with Meralco as a coaching consultant.

Before this season started, Uichico got a new assignment. He’s now a full-time assistant coach with Gilas under head coach Chot Reyes. It means he’s no longer connected with any PBA team. While Uichico said he’ll miss the PBA action, the new challenge with Gilas opens an exciting chapter in his career. It’s not as if Uichico is new to the job. In 2002, he took over the national team reins from head coach Ron Jacobs who suffered a stroke and left the job vacant for the Busan Asian Games. Uichico was Gilas assistant coach under Reyes at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships and 2014 FIBA World Cup so their partnership goes back a few years.

Curiously, Reyes replaced Uichico as San Miguel Beer coach in 2006. That led to Uichico’s transfer to Ginebra. Their coaching histories have been intertwined for 10 years. Uichico said he’s looking forward to an even closer relationship with Reyes now that Gilas has a memorandum of agreement confirming a tie-up between the SBP and the PBA in forming a national pool to anticipate the new FIBA competition format kicking in next year.

“Of course, I’ll miss the PBA,” said the 54-year-old Uichico. “You start to look for it. Now while Gilas is on break, the thing is to keep my basketball mind sharp. So I’m grateful to TV5 and Cignal for giving me a chance to appear on TV as analyst for the PBA games. That way, I keep up-to-date with what’s going on in the PBA. Staying sharp means working in game situations, not just drills so I’m looking forward to getting back to that soon.”

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Uichico said once the Gilas work begins, he expects to be extremely busy. Scouting the opposition will be a major preoccupation before a tournament begins. Australia and New Zealand will compete in their first FIBA Asia Cup next year and Uichico said their participation will alter the zone’s balance of power.

“It’s possible we could play Australia or New Zealand in a home-and-away series leading to qualification for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China,” said Uichico. “We know how tough they are. Both teams play physical and their talent level is extremely high. It doesn’t look like Australia will be able to get NBA players like Patty Mills, Aron Baynes, Dante Exum and Andrew Bogut on board during the NBA season but there are more players in the NBL to choose from to fill the gap. We saw the caliber of New Zealand at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament so that’s another headache.”

Australia and New Zealand are automatically seeded to the 16-team FIBA Asia Cup in August. To qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup, the Philippines must top the SEABA tournament in March or April. The home-and-away qualifying windows for the FIBA World Cup are scheduled in November 2017, February, June, September and November 2018 and February 2019. So NBA players are likely to skip the November and February windows, making themselves available only in June and September. In the FIBA Asia Cup, Australia and New Zealand will be bracketed in two groups of the East sector where the Philippines is also situated.

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Uichico said Reyes will set a training timetable for Gilas soon. The first order in the agenda is to win the SEABA crown. “If we don’t win the SEABA championship, we don’t qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup and we don’t get the chance to play in the FIBA World Cup so that’s a key,” said Uichico. Losing in the SEABA tournament will mean relegating Gilas to Division B where there are also home-and-away games against disqualified teams from different Asia subzones.

Uichico said scouting is critical. “Players on national teams play in different leagues all over the world,” he said. “I don’t think there will be too many opportunities for us to scout a national team competing as a national team. So we’ve got to go to places where key players are playing like Iran’s (Hamed) Haddadi in China. We’ve got to keep track of their tendencies, update our files. In Asia, we’ve never played Australia so the players will be new to us. It’ll be a tedious process but it’s got to be done. Australia and New Zealand play a different style than any team in Asia. They’re big and physical but not as quick as we are. Definitely, they’ll raise the level of competition in the FIBA Asia Cup. While we usually concede that China or Iran will be in the finals, now we’ve got to consider Australia and New Zealand, too.”

Uichico said it’s possible that in non-qualifying competitions like the Southeast Asian and Asian Games, he’ll coach Gilas. “It’s really up to coach Chot,” he said. “We’ve worked together with Tab (Baldwin) as consultant before so I’m ready to do what I’m assigned to do. I’m just excited to be working with Gilas because this new FIBA competition format is a big challenge.”