MANILA, Philippines - Former Gilas coach Rajko Toroman, now calling the shots for Jordan, said the other day China is the team to beat at the FIBA Asia Championships in Changsha, Hunan, starting tomorrow with the homecourt advantage to play a major role in boosting the confidence of the hosts who have won 15 of the last 20 stagings of the regional tournament since 1975.
Toroman said he brought Jordan to play in a pocket tournament in China recently and was impressed with the Chinese players’ athletic ability and skill level. “China has a national pool of about 30 players who are rotated in the A and B teams,” he said. “In the pocket tournament, we played against the B team, Palestine and United Arab Emirates. We were unbeaten in the round-robin then we lost to the B team in the finals. You can’t imagine the talent level of the B players. What more the A players?”
China’s A team went on an 18-day European tour last month to toughen up for Changsha. In Serbia, China beat Olympic qualifier Venezuela, 63-57, to take third place in a pocket tournament behind the host country and Russia. Before that, China won the International Basketball Challenge in Suzhou over teams from Iran, Lithuania, US, Italy and Slovakia.
“It makes sense for China to play in tournaments abroad so they get used to international officiating,” said Toroman. “If they just play in China, the officiating is different. In Changsha, China will play with a lot of confidence because of the homecrowd. They brought back Liu Wei for experience and their frontline has four seven-footers including the NBA veteran Yi Jianlian. The players are very athletic, they dunk 360s, they shoot 50 percent from three-point range. South Korea won the gold at the last Asian Games because their confidence was so high with the homecrowd in Incheon. It will be the same for China in Changsha.”
Toroman said Jordan will try to pull upsets with tactical play. “We’re not as big, talented or quick as other teams but with players like Sam (Daghles) and Wesam (Al Sous), we compensate with high basketball IQ,” he said. “We’ll run our system. Our drawback is lack of training. Sam and Zaid (Abbas) joined us only in China. Sam has played only three practice games with our naturalized player Alex Legion. Zaid has practiced with us only once and didn’t come to Manila because his visa couldn’t be issued on time. One of our players Abdallah Ahmed Aldweiri was offered a five-year 1.5 million Euro contract to play for Efes Pilsen in Turkey and since he’s half-Turkish, I’m told he’s being recruited for the Turkish national team.”
Toroman said the bright spot is Legion. “He’s an NBA type of player,” said the Serbian. “He is very skilled. He can hit the most difficult shot in basketball, the pull-up mid-range jumper. He has a step-back shot that’s impossible to stop. In Manila, we played four games. We lost to Ginebra without Sam. Then, we beat Blackwater and Globalport. Against Globalport, Alex had 27 points in 17 minutes and he could’ve made 50 easily. Unfortunately, our game against Barako Bull was stopped because of a punching incident. We didn’t start it. I was surprised why they were attacking us. This kind of physical play takes away the skill of playing good basketball.”
Toroman said in Changsha, he’ll stick to the basics. “On defense, we’ll try hard not to give up easy layups and open corner three-pointers,” he said. “We’d rather give up the medium-range shot which is more difficult to make. On offense, we want to keep the ball moving. Sam will get us going. He may miss shots early but I know in the fourth quarter, he’ll make the big shots if that’s what we need because he has such a big heart.”
While in Manila, Toroman got together with his former players like Chris Tiu and Marcio Lassiter. “I miss the Philippines,” he said. “Of all my basketball assignments, I especially enjoyed the Philippines. I would’ve liked to play in the MVP Cup but when I got the invitation, I had already accepted to play in China. I know coach Tab (Baldwin) well and I wish Gilas the best of luck in Changsha.”
Daghles, 36, said Baldwin and Toroman are poles apart as coaches. “They have different styles,” he said. “Coach Tab has assignments for players from A to Z while coach Rajko uses the European style, a system where there is a lot of movement. Both are very good. Coach Tab took Jordan to the 2011 FIBA Asia final against China. We were down by a point and the last possession was ours. Our naturalized player Rasheim Wright took a fadeaway 15-foot jumper from the side and missed. Our big guy got the offensive rebound and passed it to me. With about a second to go, I just threw it up and missed. For 1 and 1/2 years, I kept thinking about that last possession. We could’ve gone to the 2012 Olympics instead of China if Rasheim or I made our shots.”