Smart Gilas 5 starting on the wrong foot?
By Manolo Iñigo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:45:00 04/13/2010
Filed Under: Basketball
Most Read
Other Most Read Stories x
Sports
o Haitian Berto also wants Pacquiao
o Smart Gilas 5 starting on the wrong foot?
o Adamson, Lyceum get into fray
o Lakers to rest Bryant for two games
o Cardona shines for Texters
o Olympic quest hinges on a sure standard
o SMB escapes in extra time
o 2 Palaro champs strike gold anew with aplomb
o Stags join Eagles, Archers as early FilOil winners
o Pangilinan ‘won’t abandon Ateneo sports program’
Sports Most Read RSS
Close this
The
country’s die-hard basketball fans are feeling wary.
They have been so since October 2008, when Serbian coach Rajko Toroman was signed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to a lucrative three-year contract to prepare the Smart Gilas Pilipinas team for international competitions.
Despite Toroman’s impressive credentials—he coached Iran’s basketball team to 11th place in the 2008 Beijing Olympics—the Serbian has so far failed to deliver good results.
“The money allotted for Toroman could have been spent more wisely by hiring at least
two tall and fast naturalized players who could shoot from the three-point area,”
they said.
* * *
Why did
they say that?
They cited the fact that, even with coach Toroman at the helm, Smart Gilas recently lost five of its six-game training tour in Serbia, Toroman’s own turf.
Smart Gilas suffered its last loss to Serbian Basketball League Division I ballclub Mega Vizura, 70-75.
“We lost to Mega Vizura due to poor outside shooting,” reported Smart Gilas team captain Chris Tiu, a former top player from Ateneo de Manila University.
This, plus the fact that the short and puny Filipino cagers played against very tall and beefy opponents.
Middle of January this year, Smart Gilas, playing all-Filipino, bagged their first ever medal—a bronze—by outclassing Al Jalaa of Syria, 107-98, in the 21st Dubai International Basketball Tournament.
In the championship match, Iran’s Mahram mauled Lebanon’s Al Riyadi, 85-67, to retain the crown.
* * *
After that Dubai stint, a confident Toroman told Inquirer sportswriter June Navarro that he was convinced that the Philippines is now ready “to go head to head with Asian basketball powerhouses Iran and China.”
Still,
many Filipino fans were unconvinced, saying that foreign coaches like Toroman and local basketball leaders need not feed people with false hopes.
“Our patience is already wearing thin,”
they complained.
The Serbian tour is part of Smart Gilas’ preparation for this year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, this November and the 2011 FIBA Asia qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Philippines last took part in Olympic basketball in Munich in 1972, 10 years after winning the Asiad title in Jakarta in 1962.
* * *
Milo BEST, many-time Philippine Sportswriters Association awardee for its pioneering basketball training program for the youth, goes to San Pablo City on May 3 to 8.
Organized by BJ Cuello and coach Manu Iñigo, the week-long session is open to boys and girls 8 years and older at the Laguna State Polytechnic University of San Pablo. The clinic will cover Levels 1, 2 and 3.
BEST, the popular youth-oriented basketball scientific and efficiency program, was founded by former University of the Philippines varsity player and topnotch coach Nic Jorge in the 1970s. Its products included top PBA players such as Benjie Paras, Jerry Codiñera, Ronnie Magsanoc and Paolo Mendoza.
Cuello and Iñigo can be reached at 0915-6002019 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0915-6002019 end_of_the_skype_highlighting and 0927-5995818 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0927-5995818 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, respectively.
* * *
Better late than never. Heeding the call of the differently abled athletes or those athletes with disability, the Philippine Sports Commission recently released P730,000 for the medal winners of the 5th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ParaGames held last year in Kuala Lumpur.
PSC chair Harry Angping said the Philippine contingent went home with 24 gold, 24 silver and 26 bronze medals from the biennial meet dominated by athletes from Thailand.
The Philippine delegation was headed by former PSC commissioner Mike Barredo, chief of the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled Athletes (Philsada).
http://sports.inquirer.net/columns/...3910/Smart-Gilas-5-starting-on-the-wrong-foot
