Gilas sees tougher stand at Fiba Asia

GUANGZHOU – Despite its sixth place finish in the Asian Games here, Smart Gilas Team Pilipinas remains confident it can do better when it vies for a berth in the Olympics in the Fiba Asia championship next year.

The coaching staff believed sustained training and the addition of naturalized American Marcus Douthit, not to mention a healthy squad, would make Smart Gilas far better than the Asiad squad and hopefully competitive enough to go for a berth in the 2012 London Olympics.

A team official also hinted at asking the PBA again for reinforcement, the way Smart Gilas did in acquiring Asi Taulava, Kelly Williams and Sol Mercado to backstop the Asiad team, a request likely to be approved by the pro league.

PBA commissioner Chito Salud, who flew in here with the PBA executive board to watch Smart Gilas’ final game in the preliminary round versus Chinese-Taipei, had said “(loaning of) three players (to the national team) is not unreasonable.”

Though practically playing with only 10 players, Smart Gilas made a decent showing in the Guangzhou Games, just coming up short in a quarterfinal round (knockout) game versus eventual silver medal winner South Korea.

“We should have made the finals with the quality of our game. We just encountered some problems,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman.

The Serbian mentor, however, is convinced they would be able to plug the holes in their game with the addition of Douthit.

“With Marcus, we’ll have more offensive options. He will change everything. Offensively, he’s a good player. Defensively, he’s a good blocker and rebounder. Our outside players will start to work because he can work inside,” Toroman said.

“The PBA guys gave us a lot defensively here but we needed something more offensively,” Toroman added.

Toroman said he couldn’t blame Taulava, Williams and Mercado, though, since they were added in the lineup only in the last minute.

“We had Marcus in training all the time then we played here without him. Asi and Kelly made the team strong. Still, we struggled offensively since they’re not with us for a long time. Our offense was not like before and that’s a big problem,” Toroman explained.

“We had limited options. We relied only on three (offensive patterns). In tactical games against Iran and South Korea, it turned out not enough,” Toroman added.

He particularly mentioned the tremendous defensive presence provided by Williams as a bright side and the absence of a consistent three-point shooter as the team’s big handicap.

Toroman insisted, though, everything could change on the entry of Douthit.

The coaching staff believed the wingmen would be more confident taking their shots, having a big man who can get offensive rebounds.

“We didn’t have too much adjustments here. The biggest adjustment will be Marcus Douthit,” said Toroman.