MANILA, Philippines – Gilas Pilipinas looks to reassert mastery of Japan as the Philippine quintet starts chase of a FIBA World Cup berth in taking on Team Nippon before an expected packed crowd at the Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo Friday night.
A balanced mix of youth and experience, the Nationals brim with confidence they can conquer the Japanese on their home turf and set the tone of their campaign for the rest of the two-year home-and-away “WC” qualifiers.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. in Manila) between these two teams who were the most dominant in the early years of Asian basketball.
But the Philippines has been the dominant side in their face-offs in the last decade. In fact, the Filipinos have never dropped a game against the Japanese since the FIBA Asia Challenge in 2004.
A formidable cast made more lethal by the return of June Mar Fajardo and Gabe Norwood, and the entry of young players Troy Rosario, Allein Maliksi, Kiefer Ravena, Kevin Alas, Matthew Wright and RR Pogoy makes the Filipinos the favorite versus the Japanese squad.
Andray Blatche, Japeth Aguilar, Jayson Castro and Calvin Abueva are the holdovers from the Gilas team that clobbered Japan twice in the 2015 FIBA Asia Cup in Changsha.
Failing to make the cut for the Gilas-Japan game are the injury-hit Raymond Almazan, Mac Belo and Carl Bryan Cruz.
In announcing the Final 12 before lunchtime Thursday, coach Chot Reyes stressed, though, that those who didn’t make it “are still very much part of the team, entitled to everything and all the privileges that everybody else has.”
“This is just the 12-man roster (for the Japan game). For Taipei, it would be different. Every game could change,” Reyes pointed out. “Basically, we took into account the team that we’re playing against the Japanese and we also took into account our health and injury situation.”
Surely, Reyes has formed a competitive team that is raring to beat Japan to build momentum for their game against Chinese Taipei at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Monday and against Australia in February in Adelaide.
The Philippines, Japan, Chinese Taipei and Australia are pooled in Group B, figuring in a double-round-robin elims with the top three advancing to the next round with the top three from among Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Qatar.
From among these eight teams in Groups B and D, Gilas Pilipinas needs to make the top three for a guaranteed stint in the 2019 World Cup in China.
Reyes said they’re aiming high and have their sights set beyond 2019.
“The goal is clear — a ticket to the 2020 Olympics,” said Reyes in a Fiba.com report.
“That is why we will be competitive versus both Japan and Chinese Taipei. It’s very important that we get these two (Japan and Chinese Taipei),” Reyes insisted.
The Philippines and Japan have had their searing rivalry from the early years of the Asian Basketball Confederation (now FIBA Asia) championships.
The Filipinos and the Japanese won six of the first seven ABC jousts from 1960 to 1973, with Team Phl reigning supreme in 1960 in Manila, 1963 in Taipei, 1967 in Seoul and 1973 in Manila while Japan topped the competition in 1965 in Kuala Lumpur and 1971 in Tokyo.