Philippines - Yeng counts on speed over height for RP 5

From sports.inquirer.net
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Just how quick is quick enough?

Basically, this is what National team coach Yeng Guiao will try to find an answer to, for solving this would mean the best possible chance for the Philippines to make it back to the World Basketball Championship stage.

“We have to make the running game our second nature,” Guiao said Wednesday, a few moments before departing for home from here with a Seaba championship under his belt and convinced that his Nationals learned a lot in the past week.

“From the first time we played, up to now, we have improved,” the mercurial drillmaster added. “In doing this (Seaba), we learned a lot in running the system. In the international game, our advantage is to run. We have the advantage in the open court.”

The Seaba, held in the progressive Medan island in Indonesia, opened Guiao’s eyes though that the opposition, usually left eating Filipino dust in the running game, does not have that distinct disadvantage anymore – especially if the big men are concerned.

“We are so used to the PBA system which is deliberate basketball,” Guiao continued. “In international competition, you play players like these guys (in the Seaba) who just go and go.

“We felt the quickness aspect (of international play) and we have to take note of that, because we can contain the quick but small guys,” he said. “But what if they’re big and quick like the guys from Japan, China and Korea?”

And Willie Miller, a stocky guard who will be asked to play the point, shares that view.

“We will be playing tougher opponents (in the Jones Cup and the Fiba-Asia qualifying),” the two-time PBA MVP said in Filipino. “In those tournaments, we will be playing bigger, quicker foes. The guards would need to be in tip-top shape.”

James Yap believes that their stint in Indonesia – not just because the Nationals waltzed to the title – was a big help because they found the time to share the floor – and the ball – with each other.

“We got the chance to bond with each other,” Yap said in Filipino. “We just hope that we can apply what we’ve learned in the Jones Cup. Our lapses (in the Seaba) were caused mostly by unfamiliarity with each other.”

Guiao also pointed out that the pre-Seaba injuries to Jay-Jay Helterbrand, Sonny Thoss and later on to Ryan Reyes could have served the Nationals for the better.

“Because there are scouts there that took a look at us,” Guiao said. “In not being able to play those guys, the other countries did not see how the team plays when they are there.

“It could be a blessing in disguise for us, though I hope that we could have a complete lineup in Taipei (for the Jones Cup).”

Regular Fiesta Cup action in the PBA resumes on Sunday, but after that, it’s going to be full time work for this squad with the Jones Cup just around the corner.

“That's (Jones Cup) the best training ground,” Guiao said “We have to incorporate some things in practice to address that problem regarding big, quick guys in the Fiba-Asia. I think that's our weakness right now.”

From Taipei, a tournament which the Philippines won twice before – first in 1985 with a team backstopped by naturalized players and coached by the great Ron Jacobs and in 1998 with the Centennial squad – the Nationals will go to the Fiba-Asia World Basketball qualifying in Tianjin province in China from Aug. 6-16.

Guiao will still not be pressured to win the Jones Cup, with the ultimate destination being to finish at least third in Tianjin, where the Filipinos will be playing not only the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese, but Middle Eastern squads Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan and Iran as well.

The draw for that tournament, incidentally, would happen on June 17 also in Tianjin, and the success of the Nationals there would depend largely on the luck of it, or being unlucky in it – not withstanding how quick the Filipinos could be by that time.