RP TEAM LOSES TO KOREA, 83-80!

The good news, Arwind Santos (22pts) finally has a good game.

The bad news, we seem to suck big time.

How in the hell are we supposed to be at least twice as good in just 2 weeks (right when the FIBA-Asia competitions start?)

WHEN WILL THE BLEEDING STOP?

The loss was expected. After all, Lebanon made its bones on dominating the Philippine basketball team.

Vogel was gone but in his place were 2 more naturalized American, a former NBA player in Jackson Vroman and collegiate stand out Brian Feghali.

Vroman scored 24 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals. Feghali had 29 points and 10 rebounds in an efficient 8-9 shooting display.

The Philippines had Jayjay Helterbrand leading the team with 12 points. Japeth Aguilar was solid once again, scoring about 8 points and had 3 blocks, 2 of which came with Aguilar nursing 4 fouls.

The Philippines had 27 turnovers for the game. That's more than twice the number of turnovers Lebanon had (12). Willie Miller turned the ball over 3 times with the same play (driving to the baseline then throwing a bounce pass behind him straight to a chasing Lebanese player).

So when will the bleeding stop? Maybe we should stop playing this game and concentrate on boxing?

REGGIE THEUS DOES NOT LIKE ME!

Ouch! What have I ever done to you?

RP LOSES TO JAPAN, 87-85!

With 3 seconds to go and a shot at a tie or outright victory, Jayjay Helterbrand did what any other Pinoy basketball player would do in that same situation.

Ignore the coach's set play and take the shot himself. For his selfishness, he was rewarded with an ego-deflating block. And the Philippine Team paid for it with another loss.

And to think it was a won game that we lost through lackluster defense and selfish offense. The Philippines led by 19 points in the 1st quarter and by 12 points with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

The combination of Asi Taulava, Kerby Raymundo, Gabe Norwood and Cyrus Baguio was particularly disastrous on both offense and defense as Willie Miller tried to outplay the Japanese 5 by himself.

Gabe Norwood and Ranidel de Ocampo were ineffective as well as designated shooter James Yap went down with a neck injury.

The only bright spot was Japeth Aguilar, who was dominant on offense, going for something like 14 points on 6-7 shooting while being extremely active on the boards and being quite adequate on defense.

But as long as we play the US brand of basketball (aka selfish, showboat-y basketball), we will never win at this level.

FINALLY! A JONES CUP WIN!

At the very least, we know we won't get whitewashed at the Jones Cup.

We'll go up against Lebanon next, then Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea are crucial games, since they are our groupmates in the so-called "Group of Hope" in the FIBA-Asia Tournament. 

We win there, we go to the World Champsionships, where European, North American and South American teams can beat us up at their leisure.

JONES CUP DEBACLE

What is wrong with the Philippine National Basketball Team?

First they lose to Jordan (expected) by a humiliating score of 90-59(unexpected), never even being in the game since the Jordanians' 20-0 run(what?!) in the second quarter.

Then they lose to Chinese Taipei-A by a more palatable score of 86-77 but not after they go down by 19pts in the second quarter (again?!).

The only bright light? US collegian Japeth Aguilar who had a strong showing in the Jordan game with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks and followed it up with 10 points in the Taiwan game, including a booming tomahawk jam that would have been sweeter had the Filipinos won.

Now, I seem to remember the Philippines lording it over the Jones Cup whenever PBA players are used. Evidently, we have either sent amateurs pretending to be professionals or our professionals are still at the amateur level.

The fiery Guiao must turn into Albus Dumbledore now and conjure up a spell to turn this team into a competitive team come the Fiba-Asia qualifiers. 

If they don't think they can be competitive, then they should just send Coach Toroman's Smart-Gilas Team. At least they seem to fight tooth and nail in every game.