“We should not be knocked out in the early stages, right?” he said on Sunday, giving his marching orders to the newly-formed 3×3 squad.
Christian Standhardinger, Troy Rosario, Stanley Pringle, and Roger Pogoy were named as the members of the men’s team seeing action in the global hoops tilt from June 8 to 12 at Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The Ronnie Magsanoc-coached squad has their work cut out for them, with the Philippines failing to advance past the group stages in the last two years.
Back in 2016, the team of Mac Belo, Russel Escoto, Glenn Khobuntin, and Karl Dehesa finished third in Group C missed out on a spot in the playoffs in Guangzhou, China.
The case was the same in 2017, where the crew of Kiefer Ravena, Jeron Teng, JR Quiñahan, and Kobe Paras finished third in Pool B to exit in the group stages in Nantes, France.
Panlilio expects the country to show more grit though, he acknowledges how hard the task will be.
“We’re ranked 19th among the 20 countries. Nigeria is the only team worse than us. And as coach Ronnie said, the other teams have been preparing for years. It’s a tall order for us, but I think like in anything, we’ll do our best to perform,” he said.
Panlilio is also banking on the crowd support to buoy the Philippine team in reaching new heights in the international 3×3 circuit.
“Hopefully with the crowd support, it would help us in the games. I’m sure Ronnie will try his best to compete hard and advance as far as we can in terms of competition,” he said.
“It’s hard to promise. The only thing we can say is we will fight.”