FIBA Asia: Rack 'em up

Tenorio's brilliant dribbling forays
sets the tone early for Pilipinas

With this evening's win over defending champions Lebanon, Team Pilipinas should make the crossover round with expected (with all due respect of course) victories over Uzbekistan and Macau (countries that are still developing their basketball programs). Not to say that our guys should go on auto-pilot or even field in their little used players, but we should take advantage of whatever rest we could afford our   top guns.

Marcus Douthit redeemed himself from yesterday's frustrating episode versus the young Chinese giants with a sterling 25 points, 21 rebounds effort despite early foul trouble (this is starting to become a trend now, one we simply cannot afford against elite teams). The locals chipped in big time, taking turns dismantling the disorganized Lebanese defense.

If there's anything to really nitpick on then it is our continued struggles from the outside. Gary David, Jeffrei Chan and Larry Fonacier have yet to burn the hoops with back-to-back triples, Gabe Norwood has gone back to his old, hesitant self and Ranidel de Ocampo is on the Gary David system-- just settling and jacking up (and missing) threes when he's outside the painted area.

To Team Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes and crew's credit, it was quite obvious that emphasis was placed on pounding the ball inside either via Douthit's one-on-one forays or our guards just taking shots closer to the basket. From a mind-boggling 35 attempts (making only 6), tonight we only had 13 (making 2) and fortunately lived to tell about it. David was consciously taking the ball a step or two within the arc and De Ocampo was back doing his thing down low were he is most effective playing opposite Douthit.

In this tournament, we shouldn't really expect much challenge from the field save for Iran, Korea Qatar and hometown team Japan. We know that the young and fragile Chinese are beatable, and we've won over all three teams previously mentioned in the Jones Cup so we should be one of the favorites going forward. Of course, the FIBA Asia Championships is another story (that's when we'll surely need Jayson Castro, Kelly Williams and whichever player Coach Chot manages to pry away from Team SMC's death grip).

Since we'll be having lighter assignments tomorrow and Monday, perhaps Coach Chot could tinker with his line-up and use Enrico Villanueva, Matt Rosser and even his gunners Chan and David more. Villanueva needs to play in order to keep his confidence up while Rosser will surely benefit from the whole international experience. Chan and David need the extra games to get back in rhythm more than anyone else since they are the designated "sharpshooters" of this team.

P.S.

L.A. Tenorio is doing some Steve Nash wizardry with the basketball right now. Dribbling his way in and out of whatever, weaving and cutting through the seams-- just brilliant basketball that hopefully leads us to the promised land.

P.P.S.

Jarred Dillinger is playing like he should've been the one on the Jones Cup roster right from the get go all along. Stay aggressive Daredevil! Laban Pilipinas!