Chot Reyes ‘disappointed’ with latest Fiba Rankings

Photo by Ryan Leagogo / INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes expressed his disappointment over the latest Fiba Rankings which was released Wednesday.

The Philippines climbed three places to No. 31 but as far as Reyes is concerned, the country deserves a higher place than that especially when continental rival Korea improved four places to 27th despite placing lower than Gilas in the previous three Fiba tournaments.

“Actually we’re happy that we climbed their ranking but to be very honest, I don’t know why Korea has a bigger climb than us,” Reyes questioned in a press conference held at Max’s Restaurant at the Araneta Center in Cubao Wednesday night.

“Korea went up four notches and we went up only three and we’ve placed better than Korea in the last three Fiba tournaments so I’m disappointed with that three-place increase to be very honest with you,” Reyes explained.

The Philippines beat Korea in the semifinals of the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship and finished second to Iran to qualify for the World Cup in Spain, where Gilas ended up in 21st while the Koreans were 23rd out of the 24 teams. The Filipinos took home the bronze medal in the Asia Cup last July while the Koreans didn’t even qualify for the tournament.

And if that was still not enough, Korea went winless in the World Cup while the Philippines went 1-4 with the only convincing loss was at the hands of Greece.

“I felt we deserve to be higher ranked than 31. That’s just my personal feeling, I might be wrong. I’m sure Fiba has its reasons for that ranking,” Reyes also said.

“But I really couldn’t understand bakit mas mataas ang inakyat ng Korea kaysa sa atin (why Korea improved better than us) when we placed better than them in the Fiba Asia last year, we placed better than them in the Fiba Asia Cup and we definitely placed better than them in the Fiba World so I’m not happy at all with only that three-rank improvement,” he added.

Reyes was clearly displeased but he stressed that it won’t be the team’s motivation when it competes in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea next week.

“We never play for the rankings. We just play for pride, we play for our country, we play for our families,” Reyes said. “The rankings, that’s just secondary to us. We don’t even think of that.”

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