Yeng Guiao says Gilas’ twice-a-week training not enough for World Cup preps

Gilas head coach Yeng Guiao talks to reporters after Thursday training. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The 2019 Fiba Basketball World Cup is less than two months away and Gilas head coach Yeng Guiao isn’t too satisfied with how his team is preparing for the tournament.

The Philippine national basketball team has been holding twice a week practices every Monday and Thursday to get ready, but Guiao feels that just won’t just cut it.

“Practicing twice a week is too seldom for such a responsibility as representing the country in the World Cup,” said Guiao after Gilas’ practice Thursday at Meralco Gym.

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“I’m trying to get at least two more days of practices, if we can.”

Part of Gilas’ scheduling problem is the PBA’s ongoing Commissioner’s Cup that will hit the playoffs in the coming two weeks with most of Guiao’s national team players still playing in the conference.

Of the players included in the national team pool, only Poy Erram, CJ Perez, and Matthew Wright aren’t scheduled to play in the Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.

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NLEX and Columbian, Erram and Perez’ club teams, respectively, have bottomed out with 3-8 records while Wright’s Phoenix missed the quarterfinals after Meralco forced a playoff for the eighth spot against Alaska.

Guiao added that having practices too far apart from each other is also detrimental in injecting the system that he wants to his players.

“I’m satisfied but we also have to consider that getting used to a place without pressure is different from playing the game,” said Guiao. “What happens is the players will go back to the system of their mother teams.”

“It’s becoming urgent because we keep going back because what we practiced on Monday will be forgotten on Thursday so we’ll start over. We can’t build a foundation based on that.”