Gilas cadets younger team, same dream

MANILA, Philippines - Inasmuch as it puts much focus on a journey back to the World Cup in 2019 and to the Olympics in 2020, Gilas Pilipinas has made the best preparation possible for a successful defense of its precious crown in the Southeast Asian Games.

As the basketball kingpin in the region, Team Philippines sets out for a 12th straight championship and 18th overall in the 2017 SEA Games men’s basketball championship slated Aug. 20-26 at the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“As determined as we are in our quests to make the FIBA World Cup and the Olympics, we also want to do our duty to win the SEA Games gold medal,” says Chot Reyes, chief of the Gilas national team program of cage patron Manny V. Pangilinan.

Gilas Pilipinas had shown its potential, playing up to its lofty tag as the Dream Team in this side of the world, blowing away the opposition in the SEABA (Southeast Asia Basketball Association) Championship at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last May.

The Nationals were adored by the cheering home crowd at the Big Dome as they took the podium with the gold medal that served as their ticket to the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup and in the Asian World Cup qualifiers.

But that put Gilas Pilipinas in a tricky situation, having to play two important international meets with overlapping schedules – the Asia Cup in Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 8-20 then the SEA Games that start Aug. 20.

The Gilas think tank had to be creative. And thanks to the synergy between Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Basketball Association, Gilas found a way to form two separate teams for these two regional showpieces.

The SEABA Gilas team, composed of battle-tested warriors from the pro league, was sent to the Lebanon joust while Kiefer Ravena, Bobby Ray Parks, Troy Rosario and other Gilas cadets were tapped to win the gold medal that matters the most for the Filipinos in the SEA Games.

Fil-German Christian Standhardinger, Carl Bryan Cruz, Baser Amer, Kevin Ferrer, Mike Tolomia, Von Pessumal, Reymar Jose, Almond Vosotros and Kobe Paras are the others listed in the Gilas cadet squad in a gold-or-bust mission in the Malaysian capital.

As in the previous SEA Games, no other Philippine team or individual athlete faces as much pressure as the national cagers do.

“It’s daunting because we know the Philippines will not accept anything less than the gold medal,” says coach Jong Uichico, a Gilas deputy coach tasked to handle the team in the KL Games.

“The problem is that the other Southeast Asian teams have been improving. Winning the championship in the SEA Games is not a given,” Uichico points out.

The horror of the 1989 KL SEAG comes to mind in this time around. It was in Kuala Lumpur 28 years ago when the Philippines suffered its lone setback, bowing to the host country in a humbling loss in the finale then.

It rankles up to this moment, even when the team of Rommel Adducul, John Ferriols, Reuben dela Rosa, Christian Calaguio, Eddie Laure, Omanzie Rodriguez, Jomar Tierra, Egay Echavez, Junel Mendiola and Richard Melencio scored redemption in trampling the opposition in the return of the SEA Games in Malaysia in 2001.

Poor coach Derrick Pumaren and his squad that included Jun Limpot, Vergel Meneses, Gerry Esplana and Jun Reyes will forever bear the stigma of that 1989 debacle.

But truly, winning SEA Games basketball is not a sure thing any longer if the Philippines does not bring its best and finest players from the pro league.

In fact in 2015, Team Phl, even with naturalized player Marcus Douthit in tow, barely got past Thailand, 80-75, in the semifinals, and struggled to beat Indonesia, 72-64, in the gold-medal game.

“The game has evolved. The South American and European teams can no longer guarantee a win versus the Philippines. In the same way, beating our Southeast Asian rivals is not a sure thing,” says the Gilas program chief.

With that in mind, Reyes opted to play in the recent SEABA Championship a Gilas elite team to avoid disaster.

For good measure, Reyes also fielded naturalized player Andray Blatche in the Gilas team that massacred the opposition by a whopping average margin of 58.6 points.

Blatche, Rosario, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, RR Pogoy, Matthew Wright, Jio Jalalon formed the team that crushed Myanmar, 147-40; blasted Singapore, 113-66; trounced Malaysia, 106-51; mauled Thailand, 108-53; flattened Vietnam, 107-52; and steamrolled Indonesia, 97-64.

But as these PBA veterans were sent to the Asia Cup wars, Uichico has been left to make do with the cadets in the SEAG where Team Phl is grouped with host Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar in the elimination round. The other group is composed of Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The top two from each group advance to the crossover semifinals.

With all their limitations and constraints, Uichico says Gilas would have its hands full. “For one, our rivals focused more on the SEA Games than the SEABA,” he said.

“We fielded a top-level team (for SEABA) while the others saved theirs for the SEA Games. Yes, they are catching up. They are improving. They have access to better coaching, training and fielding their countrymen born overseas. Their programs are now in place as they are serious.

“It really is one game at a time. And as the saying goes, ‘the ball is round,’” Uichico adds.

But the Gilas deputy coach is well familiar with their SEAG rivals, having scouted them all in the run-up to the SEABA Championship. He has also steered the Gilas cadets to successful title runs in the 2013 SEA Games in Naypyidaw, Myanmar and in a previous SEABA joust.

He says their Jones Cup experience could well help them a lot. Standhardinger, Ravena, Parks, Vosotros, Ferrer, Tolomia, Pessumal, Cruz, Jose and Paras were all with the Gilas team that made a worthy showing in the recent Taipei invitationals, placing fourth behind Canada, Lithuania and Korea. They bested the national teams of Chinese Taipei, Iraq and India, and the Team B’s of Iran, Japan and Taipei.

“When we planned it, we really meant the Jones Cup to be the preparation for the SEA Games,” the Gilas top boss says.

“‘Yung mga bata wala silang exposure (in a major international tournament), with this kind of exposure and training, hopefully it helps them in the Southeast Asian Games,” Reyes adds.

And the players were thankful for their Jones Cup stint.

“It’s a big test for such a young team as ours to be playing in such type of competition. It’s a real good preparation for the SEAG as we’d played tough teams like Canada and Lithuania,” says Ravena, a SEAG campaigner from 2011 in Jakarta under coach Norman Black.

“We just have to learn from each other. We have to help one another. By the time the Southeast Asian Games comes, it’s going to be easier for us in terms of chemistry and playing with each other,” adds Ravena, also part of Team Phl in Naypyidaw and in Singapore.

Parks was also a member of the gold-medal winning Philippine teams in Jakarta and Naypyidaw before leaving the country and having his brief stint with the Texas Legends in the NBA D-League.

Together with Rosario, Amer, Standhardinger and Cruz, they will be the anchors of the Gilas squad that hopefully accomplishes their mission, and brings joy and inspiration to the 495-strong Philippine delegation in the 2017 Games in Kuala Lumpur.