MANILA, Philippines - Gilas assistant coach Nash Racela said Wednesday while the Philippine team may be awed by the presence of NBA stars at the FIBA World Cup in Spain, he’s confident the players will overcome the initial star-struck reaction and get down to business when the games begin.
Racela left for Spain last Wednesday night to join head coach Chot Reyes’ staff in Seville where Gilas will play five Group B games starting tomorrow against Croatia. Reyes’ staff is made up of assistants Joseph Uichico, Josh Reyes, Norman Black, Ryan Gregorio and Racela with consultants Tab Baldwin and Nacho Lezcano.
Racela said it didn’t seem like Gilas was intimidated by the presence of NBA players Boris Diaw, Evan Fournier, Nando de Colo, Ian Mahinmi and Nicolas Batum when the Philippines battled France in a friendly at Antibes two weeks ago. France won, 75-68, but Gilas was in the thick of the fray. “Awe might be a factor initially but in the game against France, we showed we’re competitive,” said Racela. “Eventually, that will die down as we gain in confidence. At the Worlds, it’s a given that most of the players are better than us, especially the NBA players. But it’s a matter of playing our game, improving ourselves. We know it’s hard and in terms of performance, we might be limited. We’ll focus on our advantages, specifically our quickness on both ends and of course, Andray (Blatche) who clearly makes us a better team.”
Blatche has played in eight warm-ups with Gilas and Racela said the improvement is glaring from game to game. “You notice the change from the first few games to the last two,” he said. “Blatche is fitting in, the coaching staff has done a solid job getting everyone to play together. Coach Chot didn’t show everything in the warm-ups, keeping about 20 percent of what we can do. Hopefully, that 20 percent will help us win games.”
Adjusting to the level of play on the global stage has been a priority. “In the PBA, we’re used to playing against others with the same size,” said Racela who piloted the Batangas Blades to the MBA title in 2001. “Maybe, if you play 80 percent in the PBA, it’s enough to beat the defense. But at the Worlds, you’ve got 6-7, 6-8 wings who will force you to stretch in the perimeter. Playing 80 percent isn’t enough. We’ve got to play 100 percent. In our last two tune-ups against Egypt and the Dominican Republic, we saw the effort increasing, we played harder, with more intensity. Early on, we were hit by a lot of traveling violations. Coach Chot used up five to 10 minutes of our practice time to go over habits, to conform to FIBA rules on traveling, to work on specific skills. We learned a lot of lessons from the tune-ups that we can bring to the actual competition.”
Racela, who has worked closely with Reyes in his staff from Coca-Cola to San Miguel Beer to Talk ‘N’ Text in the PBA since 2003, said he expects to average four hours of sleep in Spain. His focus will be on game management and scouting. Uichico and Black will concentrate on defense while Josh Reyes on offense. Gregorio will do scouting and analyze stats. Baldwin will be involved in all aspects of game preparation from viewing to strategizing to analyzing situations.
“Last year, my plan was to split time working with Gilas and FEU during the FIBA Asia Championships but as the games went on, I couldn’t attend to FEU for two weeks,” said Racela. “We would scout in the morning, go to practice for an hour also in the morning, scout more games, play in the afternoon then recap and view tape until late at night,” he said. “I think it won’t be different in Spain.”
Racela said two critical games in Group B for Gilas will be against Puerto Rico and Senegal. NBA veteran Renaldo Balkman, banned from the PBA for choking San Miguel Beer teammate Arwind Santos in a fit of uncontrolled rage during a game, will lead the charge for Puerto Rico. “Josh and coach Tab have been traveling around Spain to scout our opponents,” he said. “I’m sure Josh has scouted the tendencies of each player. The key to playing Puerto Rico is we can’t be emotional. If Balkman becomes emotional, that’s his problem. We’ve just got to play our style.”
Against Senegal, Racela said Gilas has a chance of winning. “We played tune-ups with Angola and Egypt who compete in FIBA Africa with Senegal,” said Racela. “They play a similar game so we can gauge how to play Senegal. We’ll review what we did well and didn’t do well in the tune-ups. We know the game against Senegal is critical.”
Racela said the World Cup experience will go a long way in getting Gilas ready for the Asian Games in Incheon on Sept. 19-Oct. 4. “Right now, the morale is high and the mood is upbeat,” said Racela. “We’ve been communicating via Viber. The coaches are dead serious from now on, looking at practice schedules, scouting assignments. Now that we’re getting used to this level of play, we’ll be very confident heading into the Asian Games where the competition isn’t as tough. If we’re prepared to play bigger teams, we’ll be ready for Iran in Incheon.”