MANILA, 30 August — When winning is not everything. The Philippine team bound for the Asian Games has just completed its clean sweep of a young and inexperienced Taiwanese squad during a two-game exhibition series that gave the Filipinos at home a glimpse of what to expect from them in Busan, South Korea, next month.
The Nationals, known as Selecta-RP Team, demolished the visiting Chinese-Taipei national team — which is also preparing for the quadrennial regional competition — in the two Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)-staged exhibition matches between both countries in their build-up for Busan.
They capped their overpowering show with an 82-56 victory in their second and final meeting.
Although the rout was not as brutal as the 95-59 win the Nationals fashioned out in their first game, it was still as convincing.
Actually, Chinese-Taipei is one team the Nationals may not even get to face in Busan.
But for national coach Jong Uichico, the exhibition games have served their main purpose: getting his players into the groove of the international amateur style of play.
"The team needed these wins. Some of our players still don’t have the feel of the international brand of play. That’s why we’re using this pair of tune-up games to get a grip on the amateur style of play," said Uichico.
Chinese-Taipei is bracketed with Qatar, Kazakhstan and Kuwait in Group D in Busan and would be lucky to get past the eliminations.
If Chinese-Taipei emerges as the second team from that bracket, it will join China, expected to top Group A, the Philippines (from Group B) and Japan (from Group C) in one half of the quarterfinals. The other half should be made up of Lebanon, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and either Kazakhstan or Qatar.
Obviously, from players on the bench to the mammoth crowd in the bleachers section, it was still an impressive victories by the Nationals against the youthful Taiwanese, who are barely out of their teens.
Yet, the nagging question remains: Is Uichico’s national team better than the previous Centennial Team?
Chinese-Taipei head coach Chien Yi-Fei doesn’t think so.
He believes 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.
"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," said Chien, through an interpreter, after losing their two exhibition games against the Nationals by an average margin of 31 points.
The youthful bench taskmaster probably knows what he’s talking about since he 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.
And Uichico himself, it seems, could only nod in approval 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.
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.
Chien said Uichico’s men, the fourth all-pro team bidding to end a four-decade title drought for the Philippines in Asiad basketball, has a "fighting" chance against the mighty Chinese team because of its stronger inside strength.
"It’s a very good team and they have a pretty good chance of beating China although the Chinese are taller," said Chien.
But he said the Chinese, who have ruled Asian basketball since 1986, definitely will still have the advantage because of seven-footers Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Menk Batere.
Uichico may be delighted with the way his team demolished the Taiwanese, but he would rather not revel in the din of the nationals’ rousing wins.
To him, the feat is merely secondary.
"The win is just secondary. The main purpose of the tune-up games is to allow us to familiarize with the amateur type of game," said Uichico, who along with his bunch of millionaire players, are now in the final stretch of their preparations for the Busan hostilities.
Having gotten a feel of how to play under amateur rules, Uichico looks forward to going through the same experience and learning more in the process, as his wards step up their preparations.
"Our big men should learn how to defend from the outside," Uichico noted.
The failure of the Filipinos to get their perimeter game going is another area of concern for Uichico.
The national players are Danny Ildefonso, Asi Taulava, Eric Menk, Mick Pennisi, Andy Seigle, Danny Seigle, Rudy Hatfield, Dennis Espino, Kenneth Duremdes, Jeffrey Cariaso, Noy Castillo, Olsen Racela, Chris Jackson, Dondon Hontiveros and Boyet Fernandez.
Taulava, a hulking 6-foot-9 slotman, showed why he deserved to be a member of the Philippine team as he completely dominated the shaded area throughout the series.
More than just his size and built, Taulava ably played the role of do-it-all guy, throwing his weight around inside the paint in leading the Nationals in the tune-up games watched by a nationalistic crowd.
He scored almost at will in an utter mismatch that exposed the deficiency and inexperience of the Taipei team more than it showed the readiness of the Nationals to go for the elusive gold medal in Busan.
The Nationals had problems handling Taipei’s 6-8 Tien Lei and Lee Chi-Yi, who were quick and agile but nevertheless don’t even come close to the ‘Walking Great Wall’ front-line of powerhouse China.
Likewise, the Nationals couldn’t consistently deliver from the perimeter and dominated the Taiwanese by the sheer size and experience of their big men.
"The Taiwanese are young but good. Their big men are quick and can shoot from the outside so our big men should learn how to defend from the outside," said Uichico.
But in the end, Uichico was just glad to have his team play in an amateur type of game, one that also had the Nationals enjoy a heartwarming support from the gallery. Fellow coaches Perry Ronquillo of Shell, Joseller "Yeng" Guiao of Batang Red Bull and Chot Reyes of Coca-Cola were impressed by the Nationals’ performance but all agreed that the team needs to pass more in order to beat Asian powerhouse teams China and South Korea.
Right now, Uichico has barely a month to transform the Nationals into one fighting machine capable of beating the Chinese, and of course the other formidable teams they would meet along the way before hoping to meet the reigning champions in the finals.
The San Miguel coach-on-leave said the Nationals will have to put in a lot of work developing their chemistry and fine-tuning their plays before the Asiad.
But he admitted chemistry is the team’s biggest problem right now, and he attributed it to the injuries that had hobbled his players.
The latest victim was ace forward Duremdes, who sprained his right ankle recently.
Since its formation late last year, the Philippine team’s preparations have been hounded by one setback after another.
Next assignment for the nationals is an exhibition series next week against a Melbourne Tigers team that counts on famed Olympians Andrew Gaze and Mark Bradtke and a pair of former PBA imports.
Gaze, a four-time Olympian, and Bradtke, the reigning MVP of Australia’s national league, make the Tigers the most formidable opponent yet for the Nationals and a good yardstick in their ambitious bid for the gold medal.
"We expect strong opposition in Busan and we’ll get a taste of that in this series," said Uichico.
The first match against the Australian team is set Aug. 29 at the Astrodome with the second game slated on Aug. 30 at the Araneta Coliseum.
Australia ranks among the top teams in the world stage and Tigers stars Gaze and Bradtke have played a big role in its success.
The 6-7 Gaze has reached legend status back home, largely for his unprecedented appearance in four Olympic Games and his well-documented stint in the US NCAA with Seton Hall and in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Wizards. It has been reported, however, that he is suffering from an injury and may sit out the series.
Now 37, Gaze ranks second only to Brazilian great Oscar Schmidt in the all-time scoring list of the world championships, which he has played four times from 1986.
The 6-10 Bradtke is the other pillar of the visiting Australian squad, having joined Gaze in three Olympics and two world championship before breaking out this season to win MVP honors in the National Basketball League.
Melbourne, a two-time Australian national champion, also counts on Lanard Copeland and Marcus Timmons, Americans who have made the NBL their second home. Copeland had a stint with Pepsi in the 90s while Timmons once suited up for Ginebra.
Rounding out the team are Luke McMillan, forward Stephen Hoare, forward Nathan Taylor, Greg Blake, Matt Reuter and former NBL rookie of the year David Smith. Head coach is Lindsay Gaze.
"What I know is that Australians play the European type of game, meaning they usually have one or two good post men which they surround with excellent shooters," said Uichico. "We can expect the same when we play in the Asiad."
The Nationals have played against top European teams in a stint in Italy some months back. But Uichico said the series against the Tigers, coming at a time when the team is on the homestretch of its build-up for Busan, would be a better gauge of the team’s strength. "Now we’ll get a chance to see if we can execute against tall teams, how we’ll fare against a strong opposition," he said.
Meanwhile, Uichico said nobody has been dropped from the 15-man national team, contrary to reports, and he would stick to his original plan of keeping the team intact until the final countdown to the Busan Games next month.
In fact, he said that they could make the final composition of the Selecta-RP squad during the team managers’ meeting on Sept. 26 in Busan prior to the opening of the games.
Uichico maintained that nobody has been cut from the national squad although he admitted that Purefoods’ Boyet Fernandez has "been advised that there may be a possibility that he may be on the reserve list."
"But nothing is definite yet and we are sticking to our original plan to keep the team intact until we reach Busan. These are all speculations," he said, adding that Chris Jackson, Mick Pennisi and Dondon Hontiveros are "not borderline cases" in the team.
A list of 12 players has been sent to the Philippine Olympic Committee for the purpose of meeting the Aug. 15 deadline for submission of named entries as required by the Busan organizing committee but the names were picked at random.
The final roster of the team would be made during the managers’ meeting among the 13 nations vying for the gold in basketball in the quadrennial meet.
The coaching staff has decided to bring all 15 players of the Selecta-RP Team to Busan. But three of them will have to be accredited as "extra officials" since the forms sent by the Busan organizers did not include any for alternates or reserves.
But who among them will be accredited, as players, will have to be determined soon. The PBA has sent the best players, and coaching staff, it could best offer to fulfill its golden mission — to no avail, though. And again, the PBA is pulling no stops in preparing and sending the best possible team to Busan.
So 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.
Names like Taulava, Menk and the Seigle brothers are among those Fil-foreigners who are forming the nucleus of the Philippine team.
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.
For the record, the Philippines last beat China in the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championships in Kuala Lumpur in January 1986 with a team coached by Jacobs which included naturalized players Dennis Still, Chip England and Jeff Moore.
It turned out, it was the last major basketball crown by the country in the international arena.
