Perlas Pilipinas need to double efforts says Aquino

MANILA - (FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2017) - Patrick Aquino should be a happy man right now. He steered Perlas Pilipinas back to the top level of Asian women's basketball after they moved up from Level II in 2015, and he just helmed the National University Lady Bulldogs as they went on an unbeaten championship run in the country's premier collegiate league in 2016.

Aquino, however, is hard at thought right now, what with the Philippine women's national team set to go toe-to-toe with perennially dominant countries China, Japan, Korea and Oceania powerhouses Australia and New Zealand at Level I later this year. One reason for this is that the Philippines have never really produced a top-caliber women's player, and that has always hindered their advancement when contrasted with the star-studded men's national team, Gilas Pilipinas.

Despite that reality, Aquino is still working hard to prepare his team to confront some harsh realities and find a way to use these to their advantage.

"We are preparing hard and smart for the upcoming FIBA tournament," Aquino said. "For starters, we are the smallest team to compete this year, so speed would be our main weapon, but we also have got to be able to defend well against taller opponents because we cannot outshoot our rivals."

Aquino has scouted his future foes well enough to know that, in terms of sheer size, experience and depth, his squad will be found wanting, and so they hope to make up for the difference with a higher level of effort.

"Doubling our efforts would be the key," he explained. "We have to keep scores close and find a way to get upset wins in the endgame.

As an unorthodox way of training his wards for bigger and more seasoned opponents, Aquino has actually laid out a series of tune-up games for Perlas Pilipinas, but perhaps not against opposition one may expect.

"As part of our preparations, we'll have a series of games versus men's basketball teams who are taller than us," he said. "This will help simulate the game we expect to find at the FIBA Women's Asia Cup."

Aquino knows the odds are stacked heavily against his team, but that won't stop him from dreaming of one day gaining a high degree of recognition for his players and for the country's women's national team program.

"Gaining recognition is part of our mission," he said. "We want to strive for excellence, and we want to be equally recognized as men's basketball."

He is elated, of course, that the Filipinas are back at the top Asian level, and he plans to keep it that way in the long-term.

"Our main goal is to compete at the highest level possible and give ourselves a chance to win every game," he shared. "We aim to stay at Level I and, most of all, make our country proud."

FIBA