Vietnam coach Donte Hill. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Coach Donte Hill couldn’t help but laugh off the ploy the fans had on Vietnam on Wednesday as the crowd fake-counted its shot clock late in the third period.
“I thought it was clever,” he said after the Vietnamese’s 107-52 loss to Gilas Pilipinas in the 2017 Seaba Championship. “My players are not used to that.”
The sparse crowd didn’t affect the way the fans influenced Vietnam in the game, goading guys like Tran Vu Linh and Nguyen Thanh Nhan to rush their shots late in the third and early in the fourth quarters which led to a lot of easy points for the Philippines.
For Hill, he looks at it as a valuable lesson for his young Vietnamese cagers moving forward to not get distracted with their surrounding and focus on the game on the floor.
“It was a great moment because you have to be mindful in the moment and you can’t get lost in the translation of what’s going on outside your mind,” he said.
“I told them you got to listen to the right voices. You got to listen to your voice, my voice, to the team’s voice. This is one of the things about playing on the road. As a basketball player, you have to be close your mind and focus on that moment and that’s the key to be successful.”
Hill also commended the dedication of the Filipino fans to the national team, going to as far as imposing their presence on the game on the floor.
“It showed the kind of commitment the fans have,” he said. “They make sure they give their effort. They believe in their team, they support their team, and so it was very clever and I got a kick out of it.”