2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament

[paliganibossalfrancis]

Let me explain. There is a massive difference between a walk on and a scholarship athlete. The NCAA only allows 13 scholarship athletes and schools allow walks on to complete the squad, almost always as practice players. They have to pay there own way and that means spending about 2 million pesos a year just to be part of the team.

Walk ons like Rike are mostly there for the education and arent really that good. Same with the Ronzone twins and Ryan Wetherell. They dont deserve to be put in the same category as the scholarship athletes to put it bluntly.

And your point is? Lmao. Walk on or recruit, D1 does not matter much in the international basketball context, especially in Europe, Africa and in Oceania. What matters is the highest possible level of professional basketball one can play at, that's the true indicator of one's talent.

[Sikatrix]

And your point is? Lmao. Walk on or recruit, D1 does not matter much in the international basketball context, especially in Europe, Africa and in Oceania. What matters is the highest possible level of professional basketball one can play at, that's the true indicator of one's talent.

Do you also understand how European recruiting works? Being D1 is great, especially if you produce since the top names have the teams going to them. If you dont have a name, from D1 or wherever, you have to pay your own way. Basically attend overseas basketball tryouts orcamps and hope you get a spot. D1 means you are more likely to succeed but obviously aint a guarantee, look at Keyshawn Meeker. At the end of the day, I just want pinoys to succeed at the highest level and right now high level D1 is the spot wherein that is most likely.

[paliganibossalfrancis]

Do you also understand how European recruiting works? Being D1 is great, especially if you produce since the top names have the teams going to them. If you dont have a name, from D1 or wherever, you have to pay your own way. Basically attend overseas basketball tryouts orcamps and hope you get a spot. D1 means you are more likely to succeed but obviously aint a guarantee, look at Keyshawn Meeker. At the end of the day, I just want pinoys to succeed at the highest level and right now high level D1 is the spot wherein that is most likely.

European recruitment is totally different. They become pros at a very young age. This is not applicable in the PH setting because of culture and economic condition in the country.

And that's exactly my point, being D1 does not automatically guarantee success in FIBA or heck, even in the PBA. Look at Jamie Malonzo struggling in FIBA Worlds and Valandre Chauca not even cracking a PBA lineup.

It's almost impossible for Filipinos to make it to D1 but that does not necessarily mean our youth can't have successful pro or national team careers.

Not all has the resources to relocate to US. Not everybody can afford high school and living expenses in a first world country like Kobe Paras. Not all can be sponsored like Andy Gemao. It's not practical to aim for D1.

What we can do rather, is to improve grassroots and high school level basketball in the country so they won't have to overstay in UAAP / NCAA circuits before becoming fully pledged pros. We're still stuck in the practices of the past where one must use up all his eligibility years before being considered pro-ready.

We have to improve our own high school basketball ranks and collegiate basketball ranks to the point where we have a reputation of producing Pro-ready and Gilas-ready talents at an early age. And to the point where we don't have to resort to recruiting Fil-ams expecting them to save our a$$es because our homegrowns are underperforming. We have to find a way to fast track their development. Just look at our sorry U17 Team