Through the years, the Philippines have been struck with heart breaks after heart break... It wouldn't surprise me if someone here or one day call Manila as the "heart break city." This is due to the string of heart break losses (mostly in the semi-finals) in most of the international tournaments in basketball. I noticed the practice of the Philippines when it comes to its senior mens team program since FIBA and most federations of the IOC made their competitions open to professionals after the 1988 Olympics. The common approach I saw is that whoever is coaching or managing the team, the entire composition is also expected to change. In other words, going back to square one. This is what is wrong with our program. A practice should be frowned upon not only in international basketball, but also in other team sports like football.
This is actually my fear. If the Philippines fails to nail a spot in the Olympics, the team will be disbanded, hire a new coach, form a new set of players, conduct another round of tryouts, and appeal to the PBA and collegiate leagues to lend their players and keep them for X amount of years.
The best approach is always keeping the players in the national pool together even though they're playing with their respective professional clubs. Even if SBP decides to extend coach Toroman or search for a new coach, the players in that pool should remain. The SBP should also be firm in this.
Let me site some examples:
Look at Iran. Over the last five years, their national team had undergone three coaching changes. Coach Frederick Oniga, now with ASU Jordan, led Iran to a bronze medal finish in the 2006 Asian Games. Coach Rajko Toroman replaced Oniga the year after and led Iran to the gold medal in FIBA-Asia Championships in 2007. Then coach Veselin Matic led destroyed China in their home court to clinch the gold medal in the 2009 FIBA-Asia Championships. Three coaches, three results, one common theme: "they have the same group of players." Since 2006, the Iranians have kept Hamed Haddadi, Samad Bahrami, Mehdi Kamrani, Javad Davari, and other players in their pool.
This is also the same practice by the Lebanese, Koreans, Japanese, Jordanians, and Chinese.
Our trend since 1990 is different coach, different players, PBA forcing to shuffle its schedule, arguing about lending players to the national team, keep this team for only a year, then after the tournament -- disband the team! Same movie every time which resulted in EPIC FAILURE.
I am pretty sure the argument would rise, "these players have to be playing together consistently to be cohesive." My reply is "not necessarily." Our current team have been together for over three years now, and I believe that even though they may end up playing in different teams after the FIBA-Asia Championships in China in September, these players can easily pick up where they left off due to familiarity. I think they would need about a month of preparation to be ready. Thus, the need for the PBA or college leagues to lend its players during the middle of their season is likely not going to happen.
In conclusion, keeping the pool of players intact is obviously the best practice even if the SBP should hire a new coach or not. Their familiarity in playing together for years would not require for them to leave their mother clubs for more than 3 months to prepare for a tournament that is 2 weeks long. This will surely lessen the stress within the pro and collegiate leagues in discussing whether to lend its players or not that's because having a pool of players, someone's gotta be available. The only thing I am asking is KEEP THIS POOL OF PLAYERS TOGETHER!
