Cagers work on chemistry for Kuala Lumpur Games

MANILA, Philippines - Coach Jong Uichico, who’s calling the shots for the Philippine men’s basketball team at the SEA Games, yesterday said chemistry is crucial in whipping the squad into championship form but while he hesitated to guarantee a gold medal under a new tournament format, an air of confidence was evident in assessing Gilas’ chances.

“We’ve been playing nine or 10 players in our tune-ups with UAAP teams,” said Uichico, filling in for head coach Chot Reyes. “We’ve won all the tune-ups against FEU, Ateneo, Adamson and NU. The games with Ateneo and Adamson were close and it was tight with NU at the start. Chemistry’s important. Christian (Standhardinger) and Carl (Bryan Cruz) will miss our first game against Thailand but they should be ready for our next game against Myanmar. It’s not my call to guarantee a medal but I can assure everyone that we’ll be very competitive and we’ll do our best to bring back the gold.”

Uichico said he’ll try to replace Cruz with Mac Belo but only if the SEA Games organizers allow it. Standhardinger and Cruz are still with Reyes and the Gilas team playing at the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon. 

The nine teams participating in men’s basketball are split into two groups. The Philippines is in one bracket with host Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar while the other set is made up of Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam.  After a single round of elims in each group, the top two advance to the knockout semis with the winners slugging it out for the gold medal and the losers, for the bronze. There will be no quarterfinals. The Philippines plays Thailand on Sunday, Myanmar on Tuesday and Malaysia on Wednesday.

Host Malaysia enjoys a one-day break before engaging the Philippines which in contrast, will play Myanmar the day before. The semis are scheduled next Friday with the final and the bronze medal game on Aug. 26. In 19 stagings of men’s basketball at the SEA Games since 1977, the Philippines has won 17 gold medals. The only other country to hit paydirt is Malaysia, winner in 1979 and 1989. Basketball was not in the SEA Games calendar in 2005 and 2009.

Reyes will bring Standhardinger and Cruz to Malaysia. Uichico’s chief assistant in the SEA Games is Jimmy Alapag who was recently named head coach of Alab Pilipinas in the coming ABL season. Uichico said Alapag is full-time with Gilas until after the SEA Games.

A key adjustment that Uichico will make is moving Troy Rosario to the middle. “Troy will play center,” he said. “Kobe (Paras) will play the four position. I realize he’s explosive in the open court and the opportunities to run might not be there for Kobe because playing four, he’ll be crashing the defensive boards. But it’s a matter of timing. When Christian comes in, we’ll probably still stick with Kobe at four. He’s finding his niche with the team. Baser (Amer) will be our primary point guard. We’ll play him with Kiefer (Ravena) at two but we’ll also play Kiefer at one like Mike (Tolomia) and Almond (Vosotros).”

Uichico said while the Philippines dominated the last SEABA Cup, the opposition will be different in the SEA Games. Thailand, for instance, will be reinforced by 6-5 Thai-American Tyler Lamb who played as an Asian import with the ABL champion Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions last season.