Gilas Pilipinas gets going vs India

By: Francis T.J. Ochoa - 10 years ago

Photo by Ryan Leagogo / INQUIRER.net

INCHEON, South Korea—This time, moral victories won’t do; anything less than the gold medal will be “disappointing.”

Gilas Pilipinas hopes to end a gold-medal drought of more than five decades in Asian Games basketball when it opens its campaign against India on Tuesday at Hwaseong Sports Complex here. Game time is 2 p.m. (1 p.m. in Manila).

“It will be disappointing if we don’t win the gold medal,” said national coach Chot Reyes. “Of course, having said that, we are very well aware that Iran is the No. 1 team here, China is No. 2 and Korea will be very strong because they will play in front of their home crowd.”

The Nationals plunge into action just weeks removed from a stint in the Fiba World Cup in Seville, Spain, where they compiled a 1-4 record that was lauded for the kind of fight they put up against the world’s best.

But there will be no room for moral victories here this time.

“We are aware of the expectations here and those expectations are different from the one we had in the World Cup, but we’re ready to face the pressure,” said skipper Jimmy Alapag, the veteran playmaker who was recalled to the national team because of an injury to Jayson Castro.

“Everyone is expecting us to win the gold here,” said Reyes. “But there is no pressure greater than the one we put on ourselves.”
The Philippines hasn’t won an Asian Games gold medal since 1962 and this version of the national team has the best chance to end that dry spell here, in the 17th edition of the quadrennial meet.

Aside from Alapag, the other team members are LA Tenorio, Paul Lee, Jared Dillinger, Gabe Norwood, Ranidel de Ocampo, Marc Pingris, Japeth Aguilar, June Mar Fajardo and naturalized center Marcus Douthit, who will come in as a replacement for World Cup reinforcement Andray Blatche.
Blatche was stripped off the Asiad roster due to eligibility issues.

“I’m mentally ready,” Douthit said on being a last-minute sub. He led the team in last year’s Fiba Asia championship. “I’ll get better physically as the tournament progresses.”

Scrappy forward Marc Pingris is confident Douthit will step up.

“I believe Marcus will get the job done,” said Pingris. “We just have to support each other. He’ll help us out, we’ll help him out.” “There’ll be minor adjustments but we’re ready,” said assistant coach Ryan Gregorio. “Marcus knows the system anyway.”

Despite keeping an eye on the prize, the Filipinos refuse to look beyond India, which forged a preliminary bout against Gilas Pilipinas by topping the tournament’s qualifying round after crushing Kazakhstan, 80-61, Monday.

“We don’t want to overlook India,” Pingris said. “Ayaw naming lumaki ang ulo namin dahil sa pinakita namin sa World Cup (We don’t want to be overconfident just because of what we pulled off in the World Cup).”

On Thursday, Gilas faces a stern test when it faces Asian champion Iran, which has never won an Asiad gold.

The top eight teams in the Guangzhou Asian Games are Iran, Gilas Pilipinas, China, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Jordan and Chinese Taipei. China and Taipei make up Group C, Korea and Jordan are in Group D while Japan and Qatar comprise Group F.

The four groups will be composed of three teams with the third squad to be determined by the four best teams emerging from the qualifying phase.
The top teams of each group in the preliminaries advance to the quarterfinals.