Yeng Guiao says building cohesion top priority

MANILA, Philippines — With the FIBA Basketball World Cup just two weeks away, Gilas Pilipinas is stepping up on its preparations, putting in extra hours for shooting drills and video watching and fine-tuning things with a pair of tune-ups against Aussie club Adelaide 36ers.

“We’ll add more hours next week,” said Gilas coach Yeng Guiao, who is setting the drills and video watching sessions every other day to complement the pool’s daily 5-on-5 scrimmages.

Gilas is coming off a productive 10-day training camp in Spain, where they won three of four matches versus African sides Ivory Coast and Congo.

Next up for the Pinoy cagers are the 36ers on Aug. 23 and 25, allowing them a good gauge of what they still need to work on prior to their World Cup opening game against Italy on Aug. 31 in Foshan, China.

“We’re hoping to see more improvements when we play the Australians and then, final adjustments after that,” said Guiao, whose team leaves for China on Aug. 29.

Gilas expects a full complement by next week with TNT’s RR Pogoy and Troy Rosario and San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo already done with their respective team’s stints in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals. 

“I hope it’s a short period of adjustment for the three,” said Guiao. “I hope they won’t take long to recover from the finals and refocus their minds and attention to the Gilas team.”

The veteran mentor said building cohesion with the pool that’s been training together is of utmost priority,

“More or less they have slots. They’re shoo-ins. My problem is not making the decision on whether they’re in or not; my problem is trying to jell them with only a week to go after that. That’s really the problem,” he said.

Aside from Italy, Gilas is also up against Serbia and Angola in the global showpiece, where it eyes two victories in group play to advance to the second phase.