MANILA, 20 September — There’s something about the Philippine team bound for the Busan Asian Games that draws a second glance. Something about the team that makes it potent enough to do battle with the opposition pound for pound.

Coach Jong Uichico’s team has eight talented Filipino Americans, all of whom will acquire a Filipino passport on their way to the quadrennial event in Busan.

That should make good motivation for the team to really give it all their best in their ambitious bid to bring the Asian basketball gold back to the Philippines and end the country’s 40-year title famine.

That should make do while the rest of the basketball-playing populace searches deep into itself and find that spark that makes them play for flag and country, a phrase reduced to political speeches nowadays.

Uichico can start 6-foot-9 Asi Taulava at center, 6-6 Erik Menk and 6-foot-6 Dennis Espino at forwards, 6-foot-3 Kenneth Duremdes and 5-foot-9 Olsen Racela at guards.

Until now, Uichico is still mum on his starting unit.

Taulava, Menk and Espino are good enough to go against their opponents’ frontlines, particularly the Chinese’s and South Koreans’.

The Nationals’ talent extends to their second unit. Six-foot-nine Andy Seigle is there to take over Taulava’s job in the shaded area. Danny Ildefonso and Danny Seigle can alternately provide relief for Menk. Streak-shooting Dondon Hontiveros and Noy Castillo are there to back up Duremdes. Jeffrey Cariaso and Rudy Hatfield are effective replacements for Racela at the point.

Uichico’s wards — the fourth all-pro team the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is sending to the quadrennial regional competition since 1990 — do have size that is exactly quick and strong enough to bang bodies with the Chinese.

Danny Seigle, Castillo and Hontiveros are explosive scorers from afar and can make the big difference for the Nationals’ offensive rotation and break the Chinese’s inside game.

Former national coach Joe Lipa gave the Nationals a fighting chance to reach the medal podium.

"I believe they possess the talent, skills and preparation. They do stand a chance in Busan," said Lipa, a many-time national coach.

Lipa is credited for giving the Philippines its first Asiad medal in a long while after an all-amateur squad led by Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera and Allan Caidic placed third in 1985 in Seoul.

Lipa maintained he still respects the decision of the coaching staff led by Uichico in taking in eight Fil-Ams in the Busan-bound cage team.

"If the coaching staff and the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) feel that having eight Fil-Am players in the line-up will serve for the purpose of the country in winning the elusive gold medal, then it is their decision," he said.

All but four players chosen by Uichico, and his assistants Allan Caidic and Eric Altamirano for the 12-man roster are not home-grown Filipinos. Fil-Ams Cariaso, Castillo, the Seigle brothers, Menk, Hatfield and Taulava outnumber homegrowns Hontiveros, Duremdes, Ildefonso and Racela.

Philippine team Manager Elmer Yanga admitted that it would take a lot of sacrifice and hard work for the Nationals to beat powerhouse teams China and South Korea.

Yanga rattled off three major factors why the Filipino cagers will find a difficult time claiming the gold medal in Busan.

"I think we’re lucky enough if we will be able to go to the finals," said Yanga. "Playing for the title will already be a good accomplishment for us and we’re hoping that we could at least duplicate our performance in Bangkok in 1998 (bronze-medal finish)."

Despite the Nationals’ shortcomings, Yanga still believes the Philippines has a fighting chance for the gold medal.

Uichico was convinced the Nationals have improved a lot from the time they went to Italy to play in a mini-tournament, to the time they played Chinese-Taipei also in a two-game series and against the Melbourne Tigers.

"Coach Allan, coach Eric and myself had talks with the Tigers’ coach Lindsay Gaze and we got lots of insights from him why this? Why that? We had a lot of questions," said Uichico.

Gaze gave Uichico and Co. some valuable tips.

Among those refinements the Nationals need to carry out, according to Gaze, was the need to "put a little more pressure defensively and improve on the quickness in defending the transition game. We scored a lot of points in transition than they should have allowed us."

Also, the Nationals showed a lot more fluidity on offense and a lot more faith in their perimeter shots.

Interestingly, for the players themselves, they also said the series against the Aussies was a big learning experience.

Racela said: "I learned a lot. I experienced here guarding and playing tall players. I expect to encounter such things in Busan."

Likewise, Racela said the series against Chinese-Taipei and Melbourne helped them become flexible.

"Against Chinese-Taipei, we’re going to Asi (Taulava) because Asi is quicker than those of the big guys of Chinese-Taipei. Against Melbourne, we went to our small guys like Kenneth (Duremdes) and Jeffrey (Cariaso)," he explained.

Racela said they are going to Busan with confidence.

Uichico said the exhibition games have served their main purpose: getting his players into the groove of the international amateur style of play.

"Some of our players still don’t have the feel of the international brand of play. That’s why we’re using those pair of tune-up games to get a grip on the amateur style of play," said Uichico.

After the Nationals’ convincing victory, Chinese-Taipei head coach Chien Yi-Fei said coach Tim Cone’s Centennial Team, which settled for a bronze-medal finish behind eventual titlist China and runner-up South Korea in the 1998 edition of the Games in Bangkok, Thailand, may have been better than Uichico’s crew.

Chien, through an interpreter, after losing their two exhibition games against the Nationals by an average margin of 31 points, said: "Your current team (Uichico’s) is stronger inside the shaded lane and looks bigger in size but I think the 1998 team is more experienced and plays with more teamwork."

Chien was the starting point guard of the Chinese-Taipei team which lost to the Centennial Team 92-82 in the 1998 Jones Cup Finals and which finished fifth in the Bangkok Asian Games that same year.

Uichico agreed with Chien’s comparison.

"That team was more fluid because it had more time to prepare. And offensively, the 1998 team was very smooth because that was their focus then. Our focus is on defense and it’s normal that our offense will struggle," said Uichico.

This is the reason why, according to Uichico, his team needs "more amateur-style games."

"We’re in game shape for the PBA style of play but we have to get more accustomed to the amateur style of play which is more up and down in tempo," he said.

Clearly, Uichico and his wards found it so difficult to adjust to the amateur rules when they went to Italy for a five-game tournament last June. However, the lessons learned in Italy were either forgotten or had to be discarded when the team played in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

"There’s really a big difference. If you want to make it good in the PBA, you have to adapt to the league’s brand of play. But the international style is vastly different from the PBA," stressed Uichico.

Since its formation late last year, the Philippine team’s preparations have been hounded by one setback after another.

Four years since the last Asian Games in 1998, the Philippines will embark on a mission yet again to reclaim regional basketball throne from the Chinese with the help of much taller, heftier, quicker and talented Fil-foreign players.

Overall, this marks the fourth time since the open basketball was introduced in 1990 that the PBA will be sending a selection to the Asian Games. The immediate goal is to improve on a bronze medal finish in 1998. The biggest task, however, is obviously to reclaim the throne from China.

A team coached by superstar Robert Jaworski lost to the powerhouse Chinese in the finals of the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, while the squad handled by Norman Black failed to win a medal after finishing fourth in the 1994 Games in Hiroshima.

Cone’s Centennial Team, after months of rigid training at home and abroad, won the bronze medal in Bangkok.

The last time the Philippines won the basketball gold in the Asian Games was in 1962 in Jakarta. The country also won the cage championships in the inaugural Games in 1951 in New Delhi: in 1956 in Manila; and in 1958 in Tokyo.