Looking at the Gilas Cadets’ blowout of
Malaysia
by rick olivares
The Philippines booted out hosts
Malaysia, 98-66, from the Men’s Basketball competition of the Southeast Asian Games.
What I liked about the match is
the challenges presented to the young Philippine side.
First of all, it was losing the
lead early and Malaysia taking a five-point lead at 20-15 with 2:03 left in the
first quarter. The Filipinos responded with a teaser of what was to come.
Kobe Paras hit a free throw then
Mike Tolomia, perhaps the smallest man on the floor at the closing seconds of
that frame, tipped the ball in to slice the deficit to two.
After both sides traded baskets
to start the second period, Troy Rosario backed up his man and nailed a turn-around
jumper, 27-25. The Philippines never surrendered the lead after that.
The second thing I liked was how
the team pulled together after the shocking ejections of Carl Bryan Cruz and
Baser Amer during a third period altercation between Kevin Ferrer and Malaysia’s
Kuek Tian Yuan. The Filipinos led, 57-41, at that point and the unfair disqualification
of the two players – more so for Cruz who didn’t do anything at all.
The Philippines responded with a
26-3 run that effectively put the fight out of the home time who bowed out of
the competition. They didn’t lose their cool. They just went about clinically
dismantling their foes who got the benefit of a hometown call.
And lastly, I like how Kobe Paras
is gaining confidence with every game. His 16 points backed up Christian
Standhardinger who is perhaps the most impressive of all the nationals dating
back to the William Jones Cup and to the recent FIBA Asia Cup. He gets my vote
as the national player of the year if there is ever one.
The Fil-German finished with 18
points and 18 rebounds. Not bad at all. He could have gotten more but he missed
some gimmes and mostly sat around with the game beyond reproach.
If you watch Mike Tolomia, you
have to admire his game. You are going to see a lot of Johnny Abarrientos in
his shiftiness. He sure learned from the FEU great during their time at Morayta
and their title run of two years ago in the UAAP. The way he carves out
defenses with his shiftiness and ball handling control – impressive.
With regards to Malaysia, this blowout
loss pretty much tells them that whatever preparation they did isn’t enough at
all. And that was against the B-Team of the Philippines.
They got blown out by 55 during
the Seaba to the senior Philippine squad. Sure that was their Team B but the
results wouldn’t have been any different -- another laugher by a mile.
You simply cannot be shooting
like that. Well, if that is all you can do then do it. The point is – you aren’t
Korea or even Japan when it comes to outside shooting so what were you thinking
of?
The problem remains technical.
The Malaysians lack “diskarte”. As I hypothesized before, “when you grow up
loving and playing the game the same way Filipinos do, you’ll beat them.”
Conversely, that is true with football. The Beautiful Game is the national
sport of all of Southeast Asia and much of the world. To fastrack the game, the
Philippines has heavily relied on Filipinos of foreign lineage. There has been
some success but it remains a work in progress.
Playing in the D-League helps but
one conference isn’t enough. They should get a Filipino coach for a long-term
program.
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