The Philippine men's national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas, preparing for next month's 2014 FIBA World Cup is ridding away of habits which might affect its play in the international meet slated in Spain.
Composed mainly of professional cagers playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the Gilas pool members are currently focused on unlearning tendencies—specifically on the defensive end—while re-acquainting themselves with FIBA rules.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes and team consultant Tab Baldwin are in charge of the tedious process of temporarily chucking out these tendencies from the mindset of the PBA players.
In a YouTube video released by InterAKTV, Reyes said in a team huddle: "The big difference in the PBA is we have to be strong. We need to be physical because all grabbing and handling. That's getting in the way of our quickness in FIBA."
"Kasi sa FIBA if we get strong then we can't move. What coach (Baldwin) is saying is we have to be more relaxed and quicker," he added.
With Jimmy Alapag, LA Tenorio, Jayson William Castro, Paul Dalistan Lee, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Gary David and Jay Washington, the 16-man Gilas pool is loaded with guards and wing players.
Marc Pingris, Beau Belga, Japeth Aguilar, JuneMar Fajardo, and naturalized Filipinos Marcus Douthit and Andray Blatche are the team's big men.
Reyes was very specific in reminding the team on the difference between PBA and FIBA rules.
"Sa PBA kasi hindi natin nilalagay yung mukha natin sa harap ng bola kasi pwede nating hawakan. Dito hindi pwede."
"We've got to unlearn what we've been doing in the PBA because we got to pick this up one month and we have one month to do it. Every practice counts."
Baldwin for his part said: "Going into the World Cup, going into this level, we are going to have rules and principles. But the same strengths that we have as a team, which is speed and quickness, we have to make those strengths in the defensive end as well."
"You're going to be outsized, you're going to be outexperienced and a lot of skill in these teams in our pool." Baldwin is helping Reyes in the Miami training camp along with assistant coaches Jong Uichico and Josh Reyes. The former coach of the New Zealand national team has significant international experience, mentoring the Tall Blacks in the 2002 FIBA World Cup while also leading them in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The 56-year-old mentor also lend a hand to the silver-winning Gilas team during the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held in the country last August.
Gilas Pilipinas, making its first appearance in the world stage after nearly four decades, will debut against 2013 EuroBasket semifinalist Croatia on August 30. — Solar Sports Desk
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