#Puso

A win and two losses.

Gilas Pilipinas needs to win their remaining assignments (while hoping for the very best) in the ongoing 2014 Asian Games basketball tournament after losing back to back games in two straight days. How quickly this team gets its act together and move on from all the internal strife and drama will ultimately determine if #Puso is a proud battle cry or just another clever marketing campaign (that’s being milked until the mythical cow’s utters bleed dry IMHO).

How did we get here? Why are people going on lengthy Twitter threads about Gilas’ coaches and or players? Why does Gilas head coach Chot Reyes almost, always throw his wards under the bus after bad games—feelings, mental stability and focus be damned?

The win over India was expected. They’re a young, promising team that’s built on length and shooting but maybe a few more tournaments away from doing some real damage. The loss against Iran was painful because we were so close to actually exorcising our Haddadi demons.

But this one, against Qatar, well, let’s go back to the Iran game first shall we?
Coach Chot singled out that Marcus Douthit missed three that could’ve helped preserved our win in the end game. He said that they drilled extensively for foiled, broken up plays like that. That Douthit should’ve never taken the shot DESPITE the fact that just about every single player on the floor with our naturalized big man was being pestered and molested by the Iranians.

Despite the fact that just a few weeks ago, Coach Chot had no problems with one Andray Blatche dribbling the length of the floor, turning the ball over, making some silly plays and just going 50-50 YOLO on offence.

Despite the fact that Douthit has always had a relatively nice touch from the outside (almost near the three point line even), and hell, that was the only available shot with time winding down.

Despite the fact that hey, wasn’t this Gilas offense built around the notion that any one can and should have the balls to shoot, uhm, the ball because we’re not hero ball-centric? He wasn’t trying to be a hero in that one play. And even if he was, what if it had gone in?

Yes, Douthit was smiling and going through the motions versus India (probably feeling his way around the court and just trying to get re-acclimated with his old buddies), but he was right there for us versus Iran—old legs and all.

So Coach Chot calls him out. Throws him under the bus as the fiery coach would do in the PBA.

Some guys can regroup, some guys can’t. Douthit showed that hey, just maybe, after all he’s done for Gilas and the country—the ultimate sacrifice of playing his heart and soul out to get us to the World Cup only to be replaced for someone else? Then called back to service because hey, the hot new vixen with the red lace underwear wasn’t available?

Well, the couch-crying, ice cream-eating, watching chick flicks ex-girlfriend would normally say, FU.
But not Douthit.

So don’t blame him for Iran. Question him for Qatar, but understand that hey, he’s human. Maybe, just maybe, those harsh words got to him the wrong way. And following this loss versus Qatar and how Coach Chot decided to go about his business and openly say that “Gilas will just go ALL FILIPINO” if Douthit’s not on board… that’s painful.

Douthit IS Filipino. We’ve come to embrace him. He’s #Puso. He’s fought for us countless times without question.

We can question the coaching patterns, maybe ask or pray that Coach Chot et. al. consider playing our two best perimeter stoppers—Gabe Norwood and Jarred Dillinger together in some stretches just to control opposing teams’ shooters. Qatar’s point guard Watson went crazy today, using something similar to our dribble drive offense (if he wasn’t barreling into the lane beating our guards off the dribble, he was kicking it out to his shooters).

What if we put Norwood on him? And had Paul Lee and Dillinger zero in on the shooters who weren’t exactly that special with the basketball dribble-wise? We’re not trying to second-guess our Coach here or trying to role of coach/couch potato genius, but it would’ve been a nice thing to consider, yes?

Then there’s the shooters—the bigs of Qatar who were knocking down jumpshots or just running around an out of place Douthit. One of our own Gilas contingent said that we didn’t do a good job against big shooters. Well, why did we bring Japeth Aguilar then?

Couldn’t we have brought in Kelly Williams? Or that guy who was shown on TV, some guy named Jay Washington? We heard that he’s a pretty decent basketball player with PBA career averages of almost 13 points and 7 boards per 29 minutes. Not saying we should rethink the roster or that the coaches didn't do their homework, but hey, since they're harping about defending bigs who can shoot-- why didn't they bring in guys who can actually defend bigs who can shoot (and not bite on pump fakes, or look lost every single time, or is just looking to make a highlight dunk)?

A couple more adjustments could’ve been made on the court, hopefully we’ll get to see a little more creative offense now that we’re clearly on “MUST WIN” mode if we are to hope for a medal finish.

Enough with the blame game or guys being left to dry out on the international media rounds. Enough with the almost identical to a former, controversial, TV host self-serving, “everyone’s to blame except me” speeches. And should Gilas lose, please do not dare go on a “we didn’t have Andray Blatche with us” defense because that’s just not how this team won the hearts of many in the first place.

I don't blame Marcus Douthit. I don't blame Chot Reyes. I don't blame Gilas Pilipinas for being 1-2 and needing to win their remaining games versus Korea and Kazakstan by probably a bigger margin to make quotient.

Let’s all cheer and root for our team, pray that they find the wherewithal to gather around each other, look the player (or coach) standing next to them in the eye and shout #LabanPilipinas and proudly, defiantly answer back, win or lose, #Puso.