From all indications, the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon on Aug. 10-20 will strictly be a prestige competition with bragging rights the main issue on the line. It won’t be a qualifying tournament as every team playing in the FIBA Asia Cup is guaranteed to see action in the six-window, home-and-away Asian/Pacific qualifiers to start in November. Entries may use the FIBA Asia Cup as a testing stage for the qualifiers but as it’s basically a no-bearing conclave, some countries may not even participate with their “A” teams.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said the other day he’s aware that the FIBA Asia Cup isn’t a qualifying tournament. “We’ll study what to do after SEABA,” he said. “We’ll review the options and take up our plans with MVP (SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan) for approval.”
At the moment, the plan is for the Philippines to send its “A” team, with Andray Blatche as the anchor, to Lebanon. A “B” team will be sent to the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 19-30. Since there is a slight overlap in the schedules of the FIBA Asia Cup and the SEA Games, two separate teams will be formed. Reyes will take charge of Lebanon and assistant coach Jong Uichico will handle Kuala Lumpur. Reyes will proceed to the SEA Games right after the FIBA Asia Cup.
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The players for the SEA Games will come from the pool of 23, 11 of whom were chosen for the SEABA Championships. The 11 are Jio Jalalon, Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, JuneMar Fajardo, R. R. Pogoy, Jayson Castro, Troy Rosario, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, Japeth Aguilar and Matthew Wright. The others are Kevin Ferrer, L. A. Revilla, Bradwyn Guinto, Jonathan Grey, Mike Tolomia, Ed Daquioag, Carl Bryan Cruz, Norbert Torres, Arnold Van Opstal, Von Pessumal, Ponzo Gotladera and Almond Vosotros. Nothing is set in stone, according to a Gilas source, so that the lineup for SEABA may be different from the roster for the FIBA Asia Cup. Reyes could opt to mix up the players for Lebanon and Kuala Lumpur.
FIBA’s initial format was for the top 14 placers in the FIBA Asia Cup to advance to the 16-team Asian/Pacific qualifiers with two slots allocated for wildcards. That would’ve made the Lebanon tournament a sort of qualifying competition for the Asian/Pacific home-and-away windows since the last two teams were to be eliminated. But that option was discarded.
When FIBA conducted the Asian/Pacific draw in Guangzhou recently, the 16 teams in the FIBA Asia Cup were in the lottery. Five countries, however, were put on hold, pending the outcome of their sub-zone eliminations. They were the Philippines (now playing in SEABA), Chinese-Taipei, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. The Philippines will formalize its participation in Lebanon by capturing the SEABA crown. Chinese-Taipei, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong will also formalize their entry in the East Asia eliminations in Nagano, Japan, on June 3-7.
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In the Asian/Pacific draw, the Philippines was picked to join Japan, Chinese-Taipei and Australia in Group B. China, New Zealand, South Korea and Hong Kong were drawn to Group A. Syria, Lebanon, India and Jordan were chosen for Group C while Qatar, Kazakhstan, Iran and Iraq went to Group D.
Each country plays its group-mates twice, once at home and once on the road, over three windows in the first round in November, February and June. After completing the first round, the top three teams in each group advance to the second round where the survivors of Groups A and C gather in Group E and the survivors of Groups B and D assemble in Group F. The second round grouping shows a modification from what was previously outlined in the FIBA brochure where the survivors of Groups A and B were to comprise Group E and the survivors of Groups C and D were to make up Group F.
Assuming the Philippines, Australia and Japan advance to the second round, they will go to Group F with the likely top three from Group D, Iran, Qatar and Kazakhstan. After the second round, the top three from Groups E and F are given tickets to the 2019 FIBA World Cup with a seventh slot allocated for the best fourth team. Since China has a guaranteed ticket, the next highest-placed team after the second round advances, too, so that the Asian/Pacific region will have eight entries in the World Cup.