Satisfied Guiao lauds PH cagers
They came to Jakarta a week before the 18th Asian Games opened hostilities.
Coach Yeng Guiao and his rag-tag Philippine basketball team had barely a week of preparations in Manila and hoped to whip his boys to competitive form seven days before they plunge into action against opening day assignment Kazakhstan.
In the absence of the just arrived Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson, the stout-hearted Filipinos, nevertheless, survived the test with flying colors, manhandling their taller, heftier rivals with a whooping 37-point 96-59 lopsided triumph and looked to meet powerhouse China next.
With the Cleveland Cavs’ Clarkson finally playing, Guiao and his boys lost with a slimmest of margin, 80-82, but still hoped to make it to the semifinal round depending on the outcome of their next game versus defending champion South Korea, which they lost, too, 82-91 as they failed anew to slay the ghost of their futile run against the Koreans.
Jordan Clarkson dunks the ball during the Philippines-Syria game in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The rest is history. The defeat dropped the Filipinos to the classification phase of the tournament, losing a better chance to make it to the medal play and vie for what could be the country’s best finish in 20 years since our Centennial squad ended up with the bronze medal in 1998.
The fact though was the Philippines wasn’t supposed to play against the likes of the title-defending Koreans and runners-up Chinese in the elimination round grouping but with a lighter bracket.
Two weeks before the tournament, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Olympic Committee withdrew the country’s participation only to reconsider later following protests from the netizens joined by a number of high-ranking government officials that led to the mad scramble to form and prepare a team.
The withdrawal affected the rescheduling of games, which was completed months before. When the country re-entered, the grouping had to be changed, too, that saw the Philippines playing in a tougher bracket.
In a nutshell, it was an opportunity missed brought about by the Philippines’ moving to the ‘group of death’ in the qualifying round that proved the big blow that prevented the nationals from fashioning out a podium finish.
Proof of this was their setbacks at the hands of the South Koreans and the Chinese.
Guiao’s hastily formed team practically threw Japan, the Philippines’ nemesis in Asian caging from the ’50s and ’70s, out of the playing venue, 113-80, and so the bigger Syria by 54 points, 109-54.
“I’m happy, very happy with our boys’ performance. I couldn’t ask for more under the circumstances we were in our preparations and in the actual competition,” the balding national mentor told this writer a day after securing fifth place in the tournament his predecessors could do no better than seventh, the country’s lowest.
“We could have actually done better, but that’s probably the fate we really should be at,” Guiao added. “As I had been telling the boys from the start, we might not win a medal as many expect us to, but, definitely, we can win the hearts, not only of our countrymen, but neighbors from other nations as well.”
“And I believe we more than succeeded in that area. That’s one reason why I salute our boys for that they deserve or congratulations,” he said.
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