Gilas pool to harness the benefits of tough Euro camp
COACH Chot Reyes expects Gilas Pilipinas’ FIBA World Cup pool to harness the benefits of a tough grind in Europe and emerge a lot wiser, resilient and cohesive just like the group that took a similar route before going to battle in the 2014 edition.
The current batch left for Tallinn, Estonia last night via Turkey for the first phase of their 16-day Euro camp highlighted by tuneup matches against the national teams of Estonia and Finland.
From Estonia, Mr. Reyes’ crew will take a road trip to Kaunas, Lithuania for more training and games against Norway and high-quality Lithuanian clubs.
“We wanted to get really rough competition,” Mr. Reyes said in the program Sports Desk on CNN Philippines.
“…we feel it’s part of the buildup. We had to go through this as well in 2014 I felt, those games prepared us to play well in the actual World Cup. We’re hoping this will serve the same purpose as the last,” he added.
The 2014 group, which incidentally included present pool members June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar, stood its ground against powers Croatia, Argentina and Greece and even Puerto Rico before yielding and chalked up a victory over Senegal.
With injuries and conditioning issues hounding the first few weeks of training in Manila and Laguna, the 2023 pool will have a lot of catching-up to do to reach its desired form for the World Cup that kicks off on Aug. 25.
“We’re a work in progress. We’re still very far from being in any kind of competitive shape and that’s why we’re going to the Estonia and Lithuania camps. Aside from the games, we are undergoing adverse, difficult circumstances because that’s really how to build the resilience and the ‘adversity quotient’ of our team.
“…because we know how difficult the games are going to be in the World Cup,” said Mr. Reyes, whose team faces Italy, the Dominican Republic and Angola in the tournament proper at home.
Twelve pool members boarded the flight to Estonia — Messrs. Fajardo, Aguilar, CJ Perez, Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Jamie Malonzo, Dwight Ramos, Poy Erram, Rhenz Abando and AJ Edu.
Justin Brownlee, who is cleared to go after undergoing a non-basketball medical procedure, took a separate flight from LA and is expected to reconnect with his teammates in Tallinn tomorrow. Ange Kouame will follow later in the Lithuania leg after attending his graduation. — Olmin Leyba
