FIBA World Cup: Reaching 2nd round a ‘real success’ — Chot Reyes

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes PHOTO BY RIO DELUVIO 

As far as Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes is concerned, reaching the second round of the 2023 FIBA World Cup will be a “real success” given the strong opposition when the tournament begins on August 25 in Manila.

“First of all, if we get one win, it’s going to be fantastic, but if we get two wins, that can make it a real success, and then we go to the second round,” Reyes said, during his guest appearance at the Power and Play sports program of former PBA commissioner Noli Eala last Saturday.

“If we are able to do that, then our chances of qualifying for the (Paris) Olympics will increase that much greater. That’s our measure of success for the World Cup.”

Gilas will only start its World Cup preparation on June 7 when the national team resumes practice at the Meralco gym.

Reyes said he’s looking at an 18 to 19-member pool for the team’s all-important preparation for the world basketball showpiece.

“Then we will be back (in Manila) to train, and then another tournament in August in China, but that’s not final yet. We will make the final announcement once it’s finalized,” said the 59-year-old Reyes in the weekly sports program.

While some cage fans have wondered why he has not named the team’s final 12 this early, Reyes has his own reasons.

“Experience taught me it’s not the prudent thing to do because when they were asking for our final lineup or list two months ago (for the Southeast Asian Games), who’s a shoo-in, of course, we put (Roger) Pogoy there, Japeth (Aguilar), June Mar Fajardo, but they were all injured,” shared Reyes.

“Now it’s the same thing. We’re going to have scheduled tuneup games, training and preparations. If we only go there with our 12, we could go there with several (players) incapacitated because there’s always something that will happen,” he added.

“So the best we can tell the players, ‘Are you willing to go to practices, training and camps without the assurance of earning a roster spot?’ If you say, ‘no coach,’ then we will say, ‘fine.’ We shake hands and we completely understand, no hard feelings. But my only promise to them is that if they go through this with us, you will come out a much better player, and you’ll get a lot of benefit from this for your own individual career.”

Gilas looks to get the inspiration of basketball-crazy Filipino fans when the team opens the FIBA World Cup against Dominican Republic, ranked 23rd in the world on August 25 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

The national squad’s next two games will both be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, starting with Angola on August 27, followed by Italy two days later.

The Philippines went winless in five games in the 2019 FIBA World Cup appearance in China, suffering blowout losses to powerhouse teams Italy and Serbia, along with a narrow defeat to Angola in the group stage play.

Mentored by Yeng Guiao, Gilas Pilipinas also dropped its games in the classification round versus Tunisia and Iran, thus tumbling out of the tournament with a 0-5 card.

But during the 2014 World Cup in Seville, Spain, under Reyes, the Philippines marked its return to the tournament after a 36-year absence with just an average loss of 5.5 points to world-class teams Croatia, Argentina, Greece and Puerto Rico, before eventually closing the group stage play with an 81-79 overtime victory against Senegal.