Malaysia 75 - 69 Singapore
Wong Yi Hou 22 pts
Ng Shu Yu 17 pts 12 rebs
Thailand 69 - 75 Guam
Lish 29pts 7rebs Cruz 13p 4r 4a
Galloway 22pts 19rebs
Mongolia leading Hong Kong big in the second quarter...
Freddie Lish is like Jason Castro, Stanley Pringle and Sol Mercado combined.
But still short on beating Guam that has multiple guys who can control boards... Ultra small ball will not work in any basketball games... Still need a big man who will defend the lane....
Thailand needs a bigman. They almost got the win. They just gave up too many offensive boards to Guam as well as inside points.
Jakrawan could have given them additional help inside the paint. He is more skilled than Patiphan Klahan.
Per Guam, still no good offensive plays on their plate. They just outsized Thailand. It took them the last one minute to finally the Thais. This playing style will not gonna work in Asian level (FIBA-Asia).
There have atleast 71 million population in Thailand, maybe they can find more taller players out there.... Honestly, same as Guam, If Thailand can't find bigs, they will be eliminated again in Main qualifiers for FIBA Asia cup... If your center is only 6'5, For sure your team will be doomed against taller teams... That line up Thailand bring was already as strong as they parade last year's SEAG but lose to Indonesia that only DMX as their big... Jakrawan is soft as marshmallow.. He was badly beaten by DMX down low, And Bolden didn't played that time... Mongolia might be the team will likely have chance to go thru main qualifiers if their 2 US NCAA players will available for qualifiers... Mike Shramjvst already starter at Dayton and he's contributing already...
Thailand has a problem in the bigman position. It needs to identify Thais and Thai-Ams 200cm or taller. Guam, on the other hand, has coaching problems. Guam has the size but its coach has no system.
Actually, EJ Calvo improved his coaching this year.. He had a good game plan against Thais.. It just Guam didn't hit more than half of their 3s attempt... He adjusted at 2nd when Lish scored already 21 in the 1st half, Lish only limited 6 pts in whole 2nd half.... He put Joe Blas on Lish in whole 2nd half and less minutes for Hechanova, who was badly attack easily by Lish in the 1st half.. By the way, Calvo is their president of basketball federation of Guam, that's why he has full control of that team... Guam has size actually, they are better than some of teams who are still playing in FIBA WC - Asian qualifiers who are playing sucks... If Calvo doesn't want to step down as their coach, He needs to put very good assistant coaches who will guide him just like Chot - CTC partnership...
I am not talking about defense. Guam made a timely adjustment by double teaming Freddie Lish. That was a great adjustment.
I am more concerned about Guam's offensive schemes. No variations whatsoever. Too many iso plays. Limited off-the-ball movements. This will not work against better Asian teams.
Guam can beat the likes of Bahrain, India, Kuwait, etc. but it will struggle against the likes of Iraq, Qatar, Palestine, KSA and even Kazakhstan.
Thailand has a problem in the bigman position. It needs to identify Thais and Thai-Ams 200cm or taller. Guam, on the other hand, has coaching problems. Guam has the size but its coach has no system.
The handles of these Mongolians are fluid. Mongolian players have nice shooting form too. It seems to me that they have been playing basketball for a very long time but decided to play in FIBA only now.
One thing that suspect, if any, is how can they handle physicality once they set their put in FIBA-Asia Cup qualifiers?
They have a decent team back in the 90s lead by Mike Sharamvjants' father, Sharamvjants "Shark" Tserenjankar, Shark was an agile and athletic 6'11-7 foot Japeth like skillset player, he later on became the first Asian member of the Harlem Globetrotters
Calvo is really a recreational/ligang labas coach Lol, they need a legit coach if they want to progress further and not just content on winning pre-qualifiers
The handles of these Mongolians are fluid. Mongolian players have nice shooting form too. It seems to me that they have been playing basketball for a very long time but decided to play in FIBA only now.
One thing that suspect, if any, is how can they handle physicality once they set their put in FIBA-Asia Cup qualifiers?
With Tyler Lamb, Fred Lish and Moises Morgan already completed FIBA’s pre-requisite on local exemption, I think Thailand Basketball must put together a list of high profile naturalized players to fill-up their 4 and 5 spots and be a contender to challenge the likes of it’s SEA Games neighbors like PHL(not so serious basketball NSA) and INA(very much serious) who already putting the right foundation as far as grassroot development are concern. With its large diaspora from the US and from Europe it is a no-brainer why they couldn’t jumpstart their recruitment process the way their Football, Ice Hockey, Rugby, Athletics and Volleyball Team are doing. As you may notice theirs a lot of half-breeds on their national team from the other sports discipline. Not only that, Thailand is the traditional melting pot here in SEA wherein different nationalities already settled in that country with their respective Thai wives and children.
I think another young talent will also be in the pipeline in that so-called heritage exemption for Thai Basketball and his name is Tra Holder who already represent the Thai National team by winning the 2021 SEA Games 3x3 in Vietnam and played in the 5x5 team as well. I think he will play again for the coming SEAG in Cambodia.
As for the other Thai born prospects like 6’2 Jalen Lomax of Illinois Tech who was born Bangkok, 6’0 Josh Moore of North Greenville who was born in Chiang Mai, I dunno if they will play for the coming SEA games as well.
Only Lish and Morgan are locals... while Lamb is their designated NP for Thailand... But hoping Thailand needs to find a legit big man to finally cover their weakness down low and rebounding... They lost to Guam because they were outhustled in rebounds (42 - 56) and Guam have more 2nd chance points due to offensive rebounds... No team will win a championship that your center is only just 6'5.... Lamb and Morgan forced to play out of position to covered some weaknesses but Galloway can't be stop...
Whatever happened to Jakrawan? I thought he's the big man of the future for Thailand, like how Kai is for us.