By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas center Kai Sotto is definitely benefitting in great deal right on the national team bench.
The Adelaide center showed maturity beyond his years, shrugging off an early benching in the first half before bouncing back with a solid performance to help the Filipinos in the pivotal last two quarters in the 74-66 road win against Jordan.
It was a response expected from the 7-foot-3 center, especially with no less than the legendary coach in Tim Cone talking to him during the time when he was pulled out of the game after a series of miscues.
“I think that’s the value of having good assistants. When we took Kai off the game, I specifically told coach Tim to talk to him to be able to tell him exactly why he was being taken out and what we are looking at from him,” explained Gilas head coach Chot Reyes after the game
“When we reinserted him and when he had that turnover, we took him out again just to be able to deliver that point,” he added.
While a lot is expected from Sotto, who a year from now is set to anchor the national team in the global showpiece, Reyes is not forgetting that his prized center still remains a 20-year-old kid and that proper guidance would play a crucial role in his development as a player.
“That was the crucial moment because Kai could have just gone into a funk and just lost interest in the second half. But to his credit, he came out and we shifted the matchups a little bit and Kai dominated,” Reyes said of Sotto who top scored for Gilas Pilpinas with 16 points apart from seven rebounds.
He also made all the necessary adjustments in the second half to impose his height advantage inside the paint after getting visibly by Jordanian big men led by veteran Ahmad Al Dwairi in the first half.
“He got five, four defensive rebounds, and then he scored and the presence on the defense and that’s what we need from him. I had to talk to him after the game and that’s exactly what we discussed,” Reyes added.
