Asi Taulava Thrown Out of Game!

A dirty play by the Malaysians send Asi Taulava to the ground, clutching his...man parts. Asi comes up swinging and is thrown out of the game.

Toroman Threatens Walkout!

Just how mad is Gilas coach Rajko Toroman at a certain ref from Hong Kong? Enough that he has threatened to walk out if Yuen Chun Yip officiates the next game.

Yuen was a referee in yesterday's Gilas' horribly officiated game vs Chinese Taipei and was the referee again in Gilas' game today against Jordan.

Here's the excerpt of Toroman's interview from the philstar.com.

A GUARDED QUESTION!

In my humble opinion, most of the members of the RP Powerade Team are the clear cut choices for their positions. 

If there is ever a question mark in the team, it has got to be Cyrus "Skyrus" Baguio, the man who takes over Dondon Hontiveros' spot as designated shooter and who takes a roster spot away from Jimmy "The Mighty Mouse" Alapag.

Based on Baguio's performance in the Jones Cup, there is absolutely no reason for him to be on the RP Team. He was unable to get his offense going and was barely a factor on defense. In fact, all Baguio contributed to the Philippine cause was a couple of highlight plays in the Iran game that barely made a dent in Iran's 20 point lead.

So why Baguio over Hontiveros (acknowledged as a better shot, a better defender and a veteran internationalist) or Alapag (also a better playmaker, better shot and another veteran internationalist)? 

Only Yeng Guiao knows. And I sure hope he, and Skyrus, prove me wrong.

OPTIMISM OR MISDIRECTION?

In today's sport pages, RP Team coach Yeng Guiao was guardedly optimistic, saying we had a fair chance of earning one of the three FIBA-World championship slots at stake. He also said that we had a good chance of going to the semifinals and a great chance of advancing to the quarterfinals.

Really? Seriously? Now, I'm all for hope and optimism and all that jazz but after the Jones Cup, I am simply not as optimistic as Yeng Guiao. 

Sure, we'll make it out of our group. But we are expected to. After all, no one expects Sri Lanka to actually beat us. But if we lose to Korea and Japan like we did in the Jones Cup, our next opponent may well be Iran, who beat us by 25 points without breaking a sweat. Then where will we be?

For us to actually have a chance of advancing to the semifinals, we need to finish first in our so-called "Group of Hope". That way, we get to face either Uzbekistan or Chinese Taipei (who also beat us by about 10 points in the Jones Cup).

If we don't do that, then we can chalk this team up as just the latest in a series of heartbreaking mishaps in the increasingly dimming Philippine basketball scene. 

I'M SICK OF MORAL VICTORIES.

Spin doctors have called it a "learning trip" as well as a "testing ground". Team officials have labeled it "a success" in terms of solidifying the team as well as in discovering the opponents' strengths and weaknesses.

Somewhere along the way, they forgot to mention that we finished 2-6, with two blowouts from Middle Eastern teams we will surely meet on the Fiba-Asia tournament and losses to teams in our so-called "Group of Hope".

The Iran-Philippines game was called a moral victory, like the Jordan game, the Japan game and the Chinese Taipei game. A game where we officially lost but "actually" won because we, supposedly, were able to accomplish something bigger. It's akin to losing a battle but winning the war.

Now I don't know about you but I don't think we're winning any war. In fact, I think we just proved how ill-equipped we are to fight any basketball war. 

The Jones Cup sportscasters were among the most inept I have ever heard (our PBA sportscasters would kick their butts every which way and twice on Sundays as far as basketball knowledge is concerned) but they were right about some things, mainly, that we will never win in the international stage using our PBA style.

I mean, even NBA stars lost using their NBA style. They had to bring in a college coach and spend 4 years of training in the international style just to win the Olympic gold medal. 

But not us, oh no, heaven forbid. We insist on using our PBA stars and the PBA "me-first" style and attitude, despite the fact that we lose horribly to teams who display more teamwork in one quarter than we do in an entire game.

For us Pinoy basketball fans, what can we do? Hope. Hope that Ehadadi develops a serious case of the runs on game day. Hope that El-Khatib sleeps through his alarm and fails to show up for the game. Hope that James Yap morphs into Kobe Bryant.

But please. Stop it with the moral victories. Accept the loss like a man and move forward. 

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?

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.