BANGKOK (Thailand) – As a 4^th seeded team, Thailand were among the last teams to be drawn into their groups at the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers held in Bengaluru, India. With each group looking as tough as the next, there were no “easy” groups to look forward to. However, there was an opponent that Thailand were looking forward to face in particular. When they were eventually draw into Group A with the Philippines, Korea, and Indonesia, they got what they were hoping for.

“It is the Qualifiers already. Every team is strong,” Nipondh Chavalitmontien, President of Basketball Sport Association of Thailand (BSAT), said in reaction to the draw results. “But anyways, we were grouped with Indonesia and that’s a team we really want to beat. We should be able to go through them if everything goes right. It’s been a while since we beat Indonesia and we should be able to do it this time.”

Aside from Indonesia, Thailand will also have to face the another team from their fellow SEABA subzone, the Philippines. The World Cup bound Philippines have been dominating SEABA, but Thailand holds on to hope of pulling off an upset.

“We’re going to have to see what kind of team the Philippines send,” said Chavalitmontien. “It will be tough if they send their full squad but we’ve kept it to single-digits losses against their younger teams. If it’s the full squad, we just want to give them the best fight as possible.

“Korea, we lost to them by a big margin at the Asian Games 2018,” added the Thai Federation President. “We were missing a lot of our key players like Chanatip Jakrawan, Teerawat Chantachon, and Tyler Lamb. I think with our full team we can do a lot better.”

Chavalitmontien is hopeful for a third-place finish in Group A to at least advance to the Qualifying tournament. He also hopes this will be an opportunity for Thai basketball fans to see high-level action up close.

“I think it’s really good, playing in a home-and-away format instead of a one city tournament,” he said. “If it’s a tournament, then it’s just get played at one place. Playing at our home, that’s the benefit for the fans. Thais get to see great basketball, especially in this Qualifiers where no games are going to be easy. Fans will get to cheer for the team, just like at the Asian Games for Indonesia. They knew that it would be tough to fight big teams, but it was always a full crowd [for their games]. Fans had to watch their team lose, but they were able to cheer up those players to play hard.

“I want to see that type of atmosphere,” Chavalitmontien emphasized. “I want to see the locals come to cheer their countrymen play, that’s what I hope for.”

FIBA