Gilas No. 3 sa FIBA Asia power ranking

MANILA, Philippines - Nakuntento sa silver medal ang Gilas Pilipinas sa nakaraang 37th Jones Cup sa Taipei.

Ngunit sapat na ito para umakyat sila sa No. 3 sa power ranking ng FIBA Asia sa ilalim ng Iran at China dalawang linggo bago ang 2015 Asian championship sa Changsha, China.

Binigyang-halaga ng FIBAAsia ang matapang na paglalaro ng Nationals kahit na wala si naturalized player Andray Blatche sa line-up sa Jones Cup.

“The Filipinos move up one spot owing to their inspired play in the Jones Cup, where they won six of eight games and finished second overall. And they did that without Andray Blatche,” sabi ng FIBA Asia sa kanilang power ranking report.

Pinuri rin ang mahusay na paghawak ni coach Tab Baldwin sa koponan.

“Coach Tab Baldwin has proven before that he can bring the best out of any player under his wing and that is slowly shaping up to be the case in Manila,” sabi pa sa report.

Ang Iran pa rin ang tumatayong paboritong koponan para sa 2015 FIBA Asia meet.

“Iran just buried the competition in the Jones Cup, winning all but one of their games en route to the championship. Hamed Haddadi and Mahdi Kamrani were named to the Mythical Five. This bodes well for the defending cham-pions, who are expected to dominate the proceedings once again in Changsha,” sabi sa power ranking report.

“China has been quiet of late, choo-sing to hold training camp at home after a series of tune-up games abroad. Yi Jianlian’s tired body is recovering nicely. With Yi playing longside Wang Zhelin, Zhou Qi and Li Muhao, coach Gong Luming easily has the biggest team in the competition.”

Mula naman sa No. 5 ay umakyat ng puwesto ang Chinese Taipei sa No. 4 dahil sa kanilang magandang inilaro sa 2015 Jones Cup, habang nahulog ang South Korea sa No. 5 mula sa No. 3. Ayon sa FIBA Asia, posibleng hindi makalaro sa FIBA Asia meet si South Korean swingman Yoon Ho-young, habang si star guard Kim Sun-hyung ay nasasangkot sa game-fixing issues.

Ang kukumpleto sa Top Eight ay ang Jordan, Japan at Kazakhstan.

Wala naman sa power ranking ang Qatar, Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia at Singapore.