End of a dream; PHL 68 loses to KOR 70

What a heartbreaker for our national team and Filipino basketball fans who once dreamt of making it to the London Olympics.

Korea, in a furious 4th quarter rally, managed to upend the nationals behind the hot shooting of Sungmin Cho and Taejong Moon. What looked to be a comfortable 11 point lead evaporated the minute Jimmy Alapag sat for a breather after playing the entire 3rd quarter and sizzling for 14 points (17 in total).

Normally, we could rely on JVee Casio to make simple plays for his teammates. But that wasn't the case today as Casio failed to get into a rhythm and set-up his guys. I've said it before and I'll say it again, PGs are born and bred, not transformed within 3 years time. That's not a jab on Casio who has been clutch for our team the last year and a half, but a simple truth. Once Korea's defense started to tighten, Casio couldn't make adjustments on the fly and pretty much had no other alternative but to just dump it into Marcus Douthit--which Korea couldn't stop, but was ready for.

Some of the blame should also be passed to Mac Baracael, whose repeated choosing to go over screens set for Cho led to three open looks from deep which cost us the lead. But really, how can you put the blame on a guy who hasn't been playing the last two games and was brought in as a 3rd option (when he should be the lead guy at SF *with Marcio Lassiter moving down to SG of course which will never happen*)?

I will be the first to say this though: Rajko Toroman, for all his genius, made some bad in-game adjustments that decided the outcome.

Nevermind that he kept on playing an outmatched, hesitant and out-of-his-league Chris Tiu (I have no qualms with him playing against weaker Asian teams, but definitely not star player minutes versus the heavyweights), I'm going to point out some key tactical mistakes that I believe could've been addressed to turn the tides back in our favor.

1) Baracael on Cho
- Baracael was doing just fine guarding Moon who isn't as quick-footed as he may look. In one play, Baracael even more than held his own against a taller Moon who was looking to post him-up (not knowing that Baracael plays the power forward position from time to time with relative ease). The minute Baracael was asked to switch on Cho, that decided the outcome of the game. Granted, Tiu and Lutz were either in foul trouble or fouled out, but Toroman should've opted to have Lassiter on the quicker Cho instead.

2) Riding the "Mighty Mouse" to the hilt
- This is a tough one, because Alapag was down right Mighty Mouse-ing his way from downtown in the 3rd quarter and owning whichever defender was thrown his way. I feel that Toroman should've brought the reins in once we were able to build a comfortable lead in the 3rd and rested Alapag at the start of the 4th. As you know, Toroman sat Alapag at the 5th minute mark and brought him back for the last 2 with the game starting to be up for grabs.

3) Too much pressure on Casio
- Yes he is clutch. Yes he has saved us in one too many occasions. But Casio is not a point guard, he can call plays, he has handles, but what clearly separated him from Alapag was the latter's ability to make quick, in-game adjustments without turning the ball over while Casio's go-to move at the point was to either call a set play OR go iso and look for his shot. Every time Casio was on the floor, our national team looked erratic with the wings trying desperately to get into set positions in anticipation of passes instead of constantly moving (knowing that Alapag would find them wherever they may be) and Douthit being pulled out to provide double screens with either Kelly Williams or Ranidel de Ocampo.

The plays and players were all there, we fought hard with what we had but just came up short thanks to missed free throws and turnovers. There's nothing to be ashamed of because the mission was to reestablish Philippine basketball in Asia and not to magically turn the tables on our neighbors and crash the Olympics.

I say, mission accomplished SMART Gilas/ Philippine national team. We are all proud of you and wish everyone well on their future endeavors. Some will probably move on to become PBA stars, others (like Tiu and Douthit) would stay on. Hopefully, this setback challenges the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and chief financier Manny V. Pangilinan in creating another special group of Filipinos ready to take on the world by 2013 (there's already a huge Internet campaign out to have it held here in Manila).

Can you say Ravena-Alas-Parks-Slaughter-Douthit? With names like Jayson Castro, Junmar Fajardo and even ABL San Miguel Beer's Chris Banchero?

Oh, and Chris Tiu too.