Yeng Guiao: 'Team Philippines to put up proud stand in Asiad'

MANILA, Philippines — Even with just an eight-day preparation for an event as tough as the Asian Games, coach Yeng Guiao vowed Team Phl would go all out and do its best to make the country proud when the men’s basketball competition in the 18th edition of the quadrennial games is fired off on Aug. 14 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Jakarta Asiad officially opens on Aug. 18 but the basketball event starts four days earlier with the Philippines’ first game against United Arab Emirates in Group B on Aug. 16. The gold-medal game will be played Sept. 1 at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Basketball Hall.

Guiao and his troops leave the country on Aug. 14. After UAE, Team Phl will take on Iran on Aug. 19 then Syria on Aug. 25.

The Nationals need to be in the Top Two in the group to advance to the knockout round (Final Eight) of the 14-team tournament led by traditional powers China and South Korea.

Understanding Team Phl’s predicament with its late reentry in the meet, Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas set a modest goal of just surpassing the country’s seventh-place finish the last time in Incheon, Korea.

But Guiao said they would compete as hard as they can and would make no excuses.

Time constraint prompted Guiao to pick mostly his former players for the 14-man pool to the Jakarta meet.

Rain or Shine’s Maverick Ahanmisi, Chris Tiu, Gabe Norwood, James Yap, Beau Belga and Raymond Almazan, TNT’s Don Trollano, Magnolia’s Paul Lee and NLEX’s Asi Taulava lead the roster.

All these players have played under Guiao at one time or another. Norwood, Yap and Taulava were with Guiao’s team in the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin, China.

Completing Guiao’s current pool are GlobalPort’s Stanley Pringle, Blackwater’s Poy Erram, San Miguel’s Christian Standhardinger and Gilas cadets Kobe Paras and Ricci Rivero.

“Time is really short even before when we planned this. With what happened in the last two weeks, lalong umigsi. That’s one reason we got the core of the Rain or Shine team – they’re familiar with me, and I’m familiar with them,” said Guiao.

“Our constraint is the preparation time, but we will work overtime. Cramming ito, pero magaling naman tayo mag-cram,” Guiao also said.

The Philippines was the dominant team in the early editions of this quadrennial meet before the rise of China. Team Phl has not won a medal since the bronze of the Centennial team in 1998 in Bangkok.

Team Phl (No. 7) is among the seeded teams in the 18th Asian Games along with No. 1 South Korea, No. 2 Iran, No. 3 Japan, No. 4 Kazakhstan, No. 5 China, No. 6 Qatar and No. 8 Mongolia, with the seedings based on the teams’ finishes in the last Asiad. The unseeded teams are Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Syria, Thailand and UAE.               

South Korea has an easy grouping with Mongolia, Indonesia and Thailand. Japan, Qatar, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong are together in Group C while China, Kazakhstan are two teams left in Group D on the withdrawal of Palestine.