Youth 5 gets taste of Asia Jr opposition

Nokia-RP team coach Franz Pumaren hopes to plug the holes and make the necessary adjustments in a bid to whip up the national team in time for the FIBA-Asia Junior Men’s Championship slated next week in Tehran, Iran.

With the RP Youth team’s failed bid in the Manila Youth Invitational Basketball Championship, which came to a close yesterday at the Astrodome, Pumaren said there’s a lot of things to do as far as honing and improving the team’s talent and strength are concerned.

“I’m thankful that we saw them (the Chinese and the Taiwanese) up close. I think we had a decent showing against them, and there’s always room for improvement. Another good thing about this tournament was that it provided us the chance to see from among our players who can really play against taller rivals,” said Pumaren.

The RP youths beat the Taiwanese but lost to Lithuanians and the Chinese to settle for a battle for third. They play the Chinese for second runner-up honors at presstime.

A few days before leaving for Tehran, Pumaren, however, said what they can promise is they will give their best in each game they will play in the Asian youth joust which also serves as the qualifier for the 2009 World Championship.

“It’s hard to make a prediction because I don’t have any idea of the other teams we’re facing. All I know is we have to make good playing six straight games in the eliminations and the quarterfinals to make the medal round,” said Pumaren.

The team is bracketed with Chinese Taipei, Lebanon and United Arab Emirates in the group matches. The RP boys need to finish first or second in the group to make the quarterfinals.

The RP team, backed by Tao Corp. and Nokia, depart on Aug. 25 carrying the tough task of ending over two decades of title drought by the country in the Asian youth championship.

From the 14 players he rotated in the Manila Invitational, Pumaren said he’ll pick the Final 12 on Aug. 26 or two days before the start of the Asian tourney.

The hopefuls are Norberto Torres, Matthew Wright, Gabriel Banal, Joel Tolentino, Joel de Guzman, Sam Marata, Ian Sangalang, Jed Manguera, Frank Golia, Joseph Terso, Jaypee Mendoza, Ryan Roose Garcia, Philip Paredes and Jon Sumido.

“If you probably noticed, I used different sets of starters (in the Manila Invitational) to throw off the Taiwanese and the Chinese,” said Pumaren.

Among the consistent performers in the Manila tourney were Torres, SEABA championship MVP; Banal and Wright.

For this world qualifier, Franz has sought the assistance of elder brother Derrick and former national teammate Tonichi Yturri. Sandy Arrespacochaga and Jack Santiago, who assisted Franz in the SEABA tourney in Malaysia, begged off from joining the trip to stay with their teams currently playing in the UAAP.

Curiously, Derrick was a member of the last RP youth team that reigned supreme in Asia in 1982. The Ron Jacobs-mentored team also featured Hector Calma, Elmer Reyes and Leo Austria among others.