MANILA, Philippines – Smart Gilas skipper Chris Tiu doesn’t mind facing powerhouse China in the opening round of the Fiba Asia Championship.
In fact, Tiu is excited to see the taller, heftier Chinese up close since the Nationals have never played them in any tournament the past three years.
“It’s good for us to gauge them early because we will most likely meet them again in the later rounds,” said Tiu.
As host of the Asian championship to be held in Wuhan on Sept. 15 to 25, China had the luxury of picking its preliminary-round opponents and chose the Philippines, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Group D.
A loss to China won’t affect the qualifying chances of the Nationals in the second round as long as they prevail over UAE and Bahrain.
“They are not invincible. Yao Ming probably won’t play although this time they will have (NBA player) Yi Jin Lian,” said Tiu.
“But this is the Fiba and not the NBA. You play knockout games. If we are hot, they can be in trouble,” he added.
China lost the 2009 Fiba Asia Championship to Iran on home soil and barely survived Qatar in the quarterfinals and Iran in the semifinals of the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 before winning the gold over South Korea in a tight contest.
Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman was also pleased with the outcome of the draw that had Lebanon and South Korea clustered in Group A along with Malaysia and another qualifier from Middle Asia.
Back-to-back champion Iran, Qatar, Chinese Taipei and another team from Middle Asia were bracketed in Group B while Group C is composed of Japan, Indonesia, Syria and Jordan.
“It’s a good group for us. The succeeding rounds are going to be tough but we stand a good chance,” said Toroman.
The top three teams from each group move to the second round where Groups A and B qualifiers will form Group E and survivors from Groups C and D constitute Group F.
All teams in the second round would face the three countries they didn’t meet in the preliminary round.