"We hope to give our national players tuneup games as they prepare for their defense of the basketball crown in the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games in September," said Albert Almendralejo, the event’s organizer, in yesterday’s PSA forum at the Holiday Inn Manila.
Also appearing in the forum sponsored by Agfa, Red Bull and McDonald’s were national men’s coach Boyzie Zamar, national women’s coach Arturo "Bay" Cristobal, RP team skipper Rommel Adducul and John Ferriols.
"We will need this tuneup series because even if we have excellent individual talent, this team needs to gel," said Zamar who has been overseeing the team’s buildup since November after being tapped as head coach.
Another weak spot that team will need to look into, Zamar said, is to adjust to the zone defense since majority of the players come from the MBA which is more at home with the man-to-man setup.
"Most of our players come from the MBA where they play man-to-man while the zone is what is usually played in international competitions. The Rexona-RP team tour will give us this opportunity to play the zone," Zamar added.
According to Almendralejo, Ground Zero Special Events president, the nationals will play the Cebu Gems on Feb. 24, NCAA titlist St. Benilde in Bacolod on Feb. 25 and a Northern Mindanao Selection in Tangub City, Misamis Occidental on Feb. 28.
As former assistant coach of the RP squad that retained the basketball crown in the 1997 Jakarta and 1999 Brunei SEA Games, Zamar said "I feel tremendous pressure twice over because the last time we played the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1991 we lost the championship."
"I was able to talk to American coach Felton Sealy who now handles the Malaysian last year and he said his mission is for his team to win the SEA Games gold in Kuala Lumpur," Zamar said.
"Other teams want to keep two steps ahead of us so we have to be four steps in front of them," added Zamar, who cited Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, which has reportedly been reinforced by cagers from the China, as the other teams to look out for.
Adducul, who saw action in the RP squads that competed in the Jakarta and Brunei SEA Games, said he feels "we have a stronger team this year compared to the previous squads. We have all the ingredients of a champion team."
Asked why Rexona has agreed to underwrite the goodwill series, Almendralejo replied: "We believe that sports is an excellent marketing vehicle in promoting products. In the case of Rexona, our target market are boys and girls in their teens."