Is Gilas ready for big push?

After 13 games in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman said yesterday the national team has taken a big step forward in preparing for the FIBA-Asia Championships in Wuhan, China, on Sept. 15-25.

But while the experience will go a long way in firming up Gilas’ chemistry, Toroman said it had a downside.

“We played under tough circumstances and I think that was good because the conditions may be similar in China where the crowd will be against us,” said Toroman. “It was also good that we had 13 difficult games in the PBA. The negative is that we might have lost part of our confidence in the end because of our losses.”

Toroman said the physicality factor was particularly harrowing. He called it brutality.

“In the semifinals against Ginebra, we had to change our offense because they would push our players and we couldn’t run screens,” he said. “We learned a lot from this experience. It was good that we played high-caliber teams and we proved that we can compete at a high level with the pros. In Game 4 of the Ginebra series, we experienced about a five-minute blackout and that’s something we will need to address to get us ready for the future.”

Toroman said the addition of Jimmy Alapag, Kelly Williams, Dondon Hontiveros and Asi Taulava will be a boost for Gilas.

“Asi has been practicing with us,” he said. “Dondon will join us when we resume practice on Monday. Jimmy and Kelly won’t be able to practice with us until after the finals. Of course, we’re hoping the PBA will allow us to draft Jimmy, Kelly, Dondon and Asi. They will be a big help to us.”

Shooting from the PBA’s three-point distance of 22 feet was another positive as it familiarized Gilas with the range. FIBA’s three-point arc used to be 20 feet and six inches but since last October, it was moved to 22 feet and 1.7 inches or 6.75 meters for major international competitions. The new distance will be mandatory for all FIBA-sanctioned tournaments in Oct. 2012.

For the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup starting May 28, the new FIBA three-point arc will be used at the PhilSports Arena, it was confirmed by SBP deputy executive director Bernie Atienza yesterday.

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The Champions Cup is Gilas’ next competition.

Teams are allowed to play two imports at a time but Gilas will stick with its roster beefed up by naturalized citizen Marcus Douthit. In a sense, it will be better training for Gilas to play without two imports. The other teams will adjust to playing with two imports and won’t get the right training for the FIBA-Asia Championships which prohibit imports unless naturalized citizens limited to one per country.

In the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Gilas posted an overall record of 8-5. Its two losses in the eliminations were to B-Meg and Meralco, both in overtime with Douthit unable to finish both games due to ankle and hand injuries. The other three setbacks were to Ginebra in the semifinals. During the eliminations, Gilas got off to a hot 5-0 start. Toroman used 12 players in the conference – Douthit, Marcio Lassiter, Jvee Casio, Mac Baracael, Chris Tiu, Greg Slaughter, Dylan Ababou, Chris Lutz, Mark Barroca, Aldrech Ramos, Jason Ballesteros and Japeth Aguilar. It’s not certain whom the four PBA recruits will displace. But Slaughter and Ramos may give up their slots due to commitments in the UAAP.

Toroman said he is now arranging for tune-up games in Turkey and Portugal in July before playing in the Jones Cup in Taipei in August.

“We hope to play three practice games in Istanbul with clubs or highly ranked university teams then we’ll go to Portugal where we’ve been invited to play in a tournament with the national team, Romania, Iran and another tough team on July 21-27,” said Toroman. “We’ll play tune-up games with the Portuguese national team before the tournament. In all, we plan to play about eight games in Turkey and Portugal.”

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After the Jones Cup, Toroman said some of the Middle East teams may fly to Manila and set up training camp.

“It’s possible that some Middle East teams will want to stay in Manila then go to Wuhan for the FIBA-Asia Championships instead of flying back to their home base,” said Toroman. “We might be able to stage a mini-tournament in Manila if there are enough teams. This will give us more practice games.”

In the Champions Cup, the Philippines is bracketed with the Applied Science University club of Jordan, the Kuala Lumpur Dragons, a Middle East team and an East Asia team. Japan has begged off from playing. Atienza said the SBP has suggested to FIBA-Asia for Korea to join as Japan’s replacement from East Asia. FIBA-Asia will decide on which country to invite to take Japan’s slot. The Middle East team may be either Kazakhstan or Afghanistan. Atienza said India could fill in if Kazakhstan and Afghanistan are unavailable.

In the other bracket are Al Riyadi of Lebanon, Al Rayyan of Qatar, Al Shabab of the United Arab Emirates, Mahram of Iran and Al Jalaa Aleppo of Syria.

Gilas’ ultimate objective is to top the FIBA-Asia Championships as only the winner will gain an automatic ticket to represent Asia at the 2012 London Olympics.