By Waylon Galvez
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Despite the loss to Korea, coach Yeng Guiao and the Nationals still got raves from suspended Gilas coach Chot Reyes.
Not to belittle the bravery showed by the Nationals, Reyes commended their efforts although they suffered a 91-82 loss to the deadly-shooting Korean squad.
“Take nothing away from our guys,” Reyes told the Bulletin outside of the GBK Basketball Hall.
“I think coach Yeng and the coaching staff put together an excellent game plan to beat to Korea, we’re able to limit their three-point shots in the first three quarters,” said Reyes.
“But in the fourth quarter, it’s all about scramble situations – offensive rebounds and all that – and that’s when they (Korea) hit a couple (three-pointer shots),” Reyes added.
Still, Reyes is confident Guiao can sustain his program in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers next month.
Reyes is here as president of ESPN5, which broadcasts the games on TV in the Philippines, and he said that while it’s disappointing that the Filipinos fell again to the ‘Korean Curse’ he thinks that there are positive takeaways in the performance of the Nationals.
The loss relegated the national team to the classification round for a chance to salvage a fifth place finish and improve from the seventh place finish under Reyes in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games in Korea.
After the Asian Games, Guiao will continue to work with the national team as Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio appointed him as coach for the two World Cup qualifier games, against Iran on Sept. 13 in Tehran and versus Qatar on Sept. 17 in Manila.
Guiao is temporarily taking the spot of Reyes, who will serve his one-game suspension handed by FIBA following the fight-marred World Cup qualifying match against Australia last July 2 at the PH Arena in Bulacan.
According to Reyes, he knows that the national team under Guiao will perform better in the qualifiers, considering the chemistry and experience they gained here playing together.
“The good part is that they got this team, basically has already gone through this experience together. That’s a big thing because you can’t do that (have experience) by just practicing. They’ve been through wars and they’ve been through a couple of very tough losses together,” said Reyes.