Yeng Guiao, the Philippines basketball team’s head coach. | Inquirer photo
With Gilas Pilipinas ending a horrific Fiba World Cup campaign Sunday night with a lopsided loss to Asian nemesis Iran, the same old problems are the reasons why the Filipinos underachieved in China.
“We need a longer preparation time,” coach Yeng Guiao said, a few hours after a 95-75 loss at the hands of the Iranians at Wukesong Sports Arena in Beijing that kept the Filipinos winless in the 32-nation event that started Saturday last week.
“We need to get out of Asia and get experience versus teams from the other zones like in Europe or Latin America,” Guiao said.
“Preparing for the World Cup doesn’t take months,” he went on. “The program needs to be set years earlier.”
Iran choked Gilas to just 10 second quarter points, turning what was a close game into another rout for the Filipinos, who finished dead-last in the quadrennial tournament.
The professional PBA lends the national team its players for big international tournaments, but does so for short times because of its 10-month schedule every season.
Guiao, though, would not dwell on what has happened the past week anymore, but instead, would like lessons learned in China be passed on to whoever handles the next Gilas team.
“This team did its best, but we had our limitations. We learned our lessons and we’ll try to be a better team next time,” Guiao, who has won seven PBA titles, said.
“The lessons we learned from this World Cup should be passed onto the other teams,” he added.
The Philippines played so bad that Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic even went to the extent of saying that Gilas lacked the quality to play in the World Cup.
In 2014, Gilas pulled out an 81-79 overtime victory over Senegal in Seville, Spain.
This batch of Nationals had their chance last Wednesday, only to fall to Angola, 84-81, also in overtime.