Philippine Sports News and Updates

MANILA, Philippines - Encouraged by a “lucky” draw, SBP executive director Noli Eala said yesterday Powerade Team Pilipinas has a “fighting” chance to surprise favored title contenders but cautioned against taking Group A rivals Korea and Japan lightly at the FIBA-Asia Championships in Tianjin on Aug. 6-16.

Powerade team manager J. B. Baylor of Coca-Cola, interpreter Andrew Teh and Eala represented the country in the draw at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Tianjin last Wednesday. The only other countries that sent delegates were Qatar, Jordan, Korea and host China.

“The key is to win as many games in the six-game preliminaries before the quarterfinals,” said Eala who flew back home Thursday. “If we finish first or second, we avoid a knockout game against either China or Lebanon in the crossover quarterfinals and instead play Jordan, Kazakhstan or Qatar. A win in the quarterfinals will advance us to the semifinals where we figure in another knockout game for the chance to play in the finals.”

The top three finishers gain slots to represent Asia at the 24-nation World Championships in Turkey next year. The Tianjin finalists are automatic qualifiers while the losing semifinalists play off for the last ticket to Turkey.

Eala said the consensus after the draw in Tianjin was China and defending champion Iran are shoo-ins for the finals with third place going to either Jordan or Korea. The Philippines is not considered a favorite but is tagged as a darkhorse.

Eala said he expects the Philippines to play either Japan or Korea in its first assignment in Tianjin. The other Group A team is Sri Lanka, reportedly suiting up a 6-7 player from a US NCAA Division I school.

“Coach Rajko (Toroman) and our Smart-Gilas team know Japan very well,” said Eala. “We just played four exhibition games with the Japanese national team in Tokyo. They’ve got a new American coach (David Hobbs). We don’t know if their top players, Takuya Kawamura and Yuta Tabuse, will be back from NBA camps or if naturalized player (former PBA import) J. R. Henderson (known as Sakuragi) will play. As for Korea, their new coach is Hur Jae who is banking on two half-Koreans, Kim Min Soo (half-Argentinian) and Lee Dong Joon (half-American, his real name is Daniel Sandrin of Portland State).”

Jae, 44, is not making a comeback as a player. Aside from the 6-8 Kim and the 6-6 Lee, the other Korean hotshots are 6-3 guard Choo Seung Kyun (who’s now 33), 5-11 Joo Hee Jung (who’s 32), 6-5 Bang Sung Yun, 6-6 Lee Kyu Sup and 6-0 Yang Dong Geun. Korea recently won the East Asian title, beating Japan, 68-58, Chinese-Taipei, 86-71 and China, 70-62, in the process.

Hobbs, 60, coached the University of Alabama from 1992 to 1998. His mainstays include the 6-10 twins Joji and Kosuke Takeuchi, 6-3 marksman Takehiko Orimo (now 39), 6-2 Ken Takeda, 5-11 Kei Igarashi, 6-1 Yusuke Okada, 6-0 Shinsuke Kashiwagi and 6-5 Tomoo Amino.

Toroman, who left for a brief home leave in Serbia yesterday morning, said the chances of the Philippines beating Japan and Korea are 50-50.

“Both teams are strong,” said Toroman. “But I think the Philippines will qualify for the quarterfinals. How far the team will go depends on the match-up in the quarterfinals. In Group B, we also can’t discount Uzbekistan, which has several tall players (including 7-1 Sergey Karaulov, 7-0 Dmitry Sviridov and 6-7 Grigori Shukhovtsov). Uzbekistan might be able to score an upset against any of the top teams in Group A.”

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