Philippine Sports News and Updates

BEIJING – Officials and coaching staff of Powerade Team Pilipinas are convinced the country can still regain its once lofty status as the best in Asia with a program and preparation attuned to international standards.

They made the assessment following the Philippines eighth place finish in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship which came to a close Sunday night in Tianjin with Iran winning the crown over the host team.

Iran jolted China, 70-52, to complete a successful title defense while Jordan topped Lebanon, 80-66, for third place. The top three placers in the Asian meet will represent the region in the World championship in Turkey next year.

The Nationals, backed by Nike, ended up eighth, improving just one notch from their finish in the Tokushima joust, losing their last three games to Jordan, Qatar and Korea.

“Previously, my view was that the Middle East teams have gone far ahead of the rest of Asia. I was wrong. We’re still not far behind. With a sound program, we can still catch up,” said coach Yeng Guiao.

“With a continuing program focused on improving our players, we can be the best in Asia outside of the Middle East teams and China by next year. We can be in the league of the Middle East teams in two to three years. We may also beat China with the help of a naturalized player,” Guiao added.

“Of course, we have to take care of Korea, Taipei and Japan. I think we’re there. We’re beaten by 19 points by Korea in the Jones Cup, by 10 in our first meeting here and we just blew a chance to win our second meeting here. Every time we play, it’s getting easier for us and it’s getting harder for them.”

PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios and Powerade-RP team manager JB Baylon said the Tianjin experience, meanwhile, observed that the Filipinos “pick-up system” in forming the national team simply won’t work in international play.

“It’s an old lesson for us that less than a year of training with no international exposure won’t work even if we have good individual talents,” said Barrios. “We have to study the inputs of coach Yeng. I think it’s doable on the PBA side if it won’t weaken the league. But we have to work with the SBP because they’re the authority.”

“We learned two lessons here. First, FIBA-Asia is really tough. Second, we can do it with proper preparation,” said Baylon.

Barrios and Baylon congratulated the team for what they have achieved.

“I like to congratulate the boys because I know they played hard. I also like to commend coach Yeng for getting the team in the thick of the fight here notwithstanding limited training,” said Barrios.

The team was assembled in November but went to Tianjin with practically two weeks of training.

“We made all the preparations here only after the Jones Cup because it’s only there that we saw the opposition and the competition we’re to play,” said Guiao. “It didn’t matter the kind of training we had before the Jones Cup. That’s the problem if your team has no international exposure.”

At the same time, Guiao is suggesting that the PBA puts up a continuing program where it forms a pool players which would train and compete overseas during a break in the pro league’s season.

“In doing this, you make the players better and more adjusted with international play,” said Guiao.

The team left for this Chinese capital right after its final game in Tianjin Sunday night. It flies home today.

NOTES: International coaches believed the Chinese might have even finished outside the Top Three here if they were not the host of the tourney. The coaches pointed out China got the breaks from the referees in winning over Jordan and Lebanon. “It turned out China is nothing without Yao Ming. Yi Jianlian can’t take charge for the team,” observed Guiao…Up to the last day of FIBA-Asia competition, there were still those asking where Jimmy Alapag was. One of them is Jordan coach Mario Palma... Chinese sportswriters, meanwhile, wondered how come Matt Freije suddenly became a Lebanese when he’s known as an American while playing as an import in the Chinese league. Only one naturalized player is allowed to play per team in FIBA tourneys. Jackson Vroman was Lebanon’s declared naturalized player.

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