ALLAN THE MAN

Philippine national men’s basketball coach Chot Reyes is worried about the squad’s possible stint in the William Jones Cup in Taipei amid rising tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team is the defending champion of the annual Taiwan tournament, which is crucial for the buildup for the FIBA Asia Championship in August.

"Beat China." This was the advice given by former NBA star Yao Ming to the Philippine national basketball team, Smart Gilas Pilipinas, seeking an end to the decades-long World Championship and Olympic drought.

Yao made the statement at the press conference on Philippines-China Friendship Games on Sunday at the Grand Ballroom of the Solaire Hotel and Casino near the Mall of Asia grounds in Pasay City.

The 7-foot-6 Yao, who played nine meaningful seasons with the Houston Rockets in the NBA, including the last few years where he was hobbled by various injuries, then withheld from giving more tips, saying it will end up spilling the beans to China's secret to success.

NO less than the leadership of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and a prominent lawmaker who’s been an ardent supporter of the sport are backing national coach Chot Reyes if he decides to have either Michael Dunigan or Denzel Bowles as Gilas' next naturalized player.

SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan said he’s leaving it all up to Reyes on who he has in mind as candidate for naturalization, a move Antipolo congressman Robbie Puno said he’ll definitely push again at the House of Representative.

SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national coach Chot Reyes has named his lineup that will go to battle in the FIBA Asia Championship in August.

Joining naturalized center Marcus Douthit on the team are Jayson Castro, Jimmy Alapag, Larry Fonacier, Ranidel De Ocampo, Ryan Reyes, Jared Dillinger, and Kelly Williams of three-time Philippine Cup champion Talk ‘N Text; Jeff Chan and Gabe Norwood of Rain or Shine; Gary David and Japeth Aguilar of GlobalPort; Marc Pingris of San Mig Coffee; Sonny Thoss of Alaska; LA Tenorio of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel; and rookie June Mar Fajardo of Petron.

The Philippine national team Smart Gilas stormed back from a 0-11 start to the game and then came up with plucky defensive play on the very last possession, to steal a 79-77 win over Mouttahed Tripoli, Friday (early Saturday, PHL time) at the Al Ahli gym in Dubai, in their first assignment of the Dubai Invitational Basketball tournament.

PETRON rookie June Mar Fajardo and Ateneo center Greg Slaughter, two celebrated big men owing to their size and skill, are not yet ripe for big international events like the Fiba-Asia men’s championships, according to former national coach Rajko Toroman.

While insisting he was not trying to put down Smart Gilas 2.0 coach Chot Reyes’ efforts to beef up the national squad for next year’s Fiba Asia men’s in Beirut, Toroman said he believes Fajardo and Slaughter have a long way to go before they can hold their own against against Asia’s best big men.

Despite a heartbreaking exit for the San Sebastian Stags in the semifinals of NCAA Season 88, Ian Sangalang has made his mark in Philippine basketball.

He is set to win the league’s Most Valuable Player award after teammate Calvin Abueva was rendered ineligible for the award due to a disqualifying foul earlier this season. Sangalang topped the rest of the league in statistics and was an awesome force in the middle for the Stags all season.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team lost its final assignment, 76-63, against Qatar to settle for fourth place in the FIBA Asia Cup Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

The loss put SMART-Gilas out of the running for a top-three finish and the automatic berth to next year’s FIBA Asia Championships in Lebanon that comes with it.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team lost its final assignment, 76-63, against Qatar to settle for fourth place in the FIBA Asia Cup Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.

The Philippine side shot a miserable 2-of-18 (11 percent) from beyond the arc and 38 percent overall as it couldn’t sustain a second half comeback run.

SMART-Gilas was still in striking distance, 61-54, midway through the fourth quarter when Qatar unleashed hit four three-pointers in a 12-2 run to seal the game.

This time, there was no fourth quarter magic for the SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team.

Iran caught fire in the second half to down the Philippines, 77-60, and book the first finals seat in the FIBA Asia Cup Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

SMART-Gilas was down by just three points, 50-47, when Iran unleashed a 12-0 run to bridge the third and fourth quarters to put the game away. The Philippines’ woes were compounded by foul trouble on its big men. Marcus Douthit, Ranidel De Ocampo, and Sonny Thoss all missed either part or all of the fourth quarter because of foul trouble.

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team used a furious fourth quarter run to turn back Chinese Taipei, 75-68, in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Asia Cup Thursday in Tokyo, Japan.

Lebanon, and not the Philippines, will host the FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship next year.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Sonny Barrios disclosed the news to InterAKTV shortly after the FIBA Asia executive committee informed them that Lebanon was granted the hosting rights for the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifier.

SMART Gilas 2.0 finds itself crossing path with Chinese-Taipei yet again as the Taiwanese drew the Filipinos as their quarterfinal opponents in the FIBA Asia Cup championship in Tokyo, Japan Tuesday night.

The Taiwanese banked on a perfectly executed alley-oop play which Lu Cheng-ju converted at the buzzer for a thrilling 75-73 win on the final day of the preliminaries at the Ota gym.

Watch Full Game Replay of Smart Gilas Philippines vs Macau National team in the preliminary round of 2012 FIBA Asia Cup being held in Tokyo, Japan. 

Gilas Philippines over-matched Macau by 52 points, with that Philippines has a record of 3 Wins and 1 Loss and ties for the top spot in the Group A.

The scores:

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team hardly needed naturalized center Marcus Douthit as they thumped an overmatched Macau side, 98-46, to close their Group A campaign with a 3-1 record and at least a tie for the top spot of their group in the 4th FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Jeff Chan scored 18 points while Jay-R Reyes and Gary David scored 12 points apiece as the Philippines cruised for their third victory despite opting to give Douthit the day off.

SMART-Gilas showed they were clearly a class above their opponents, a team with an average age of just 20 years old and whose tallest player stood at just 6-foot-7, as they fired off a 14-0 run right off the bat.

Watch Full Game Replay of Smart Gilas Philippines vs Uzbekistan Here. Gilas Philippines defeats Uzbekistan by 35. 

Game Highlights:

-Jeff Chan led Smart Gilas with 20 points (4/7 from 3-point range)

-Matt Ganuelas Rosser with 8 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals

-Smart Gilas shot well from the field (44%) and in the 3-point area (8/20)

-9 players with 5 or more points

The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team barely broke a sweat in dispatching Uzbekistan, 85-50, for its second straight victory in the FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Jeff Chan led all scorers with 20 points for the Philippine team, which was never seriously threatened in the game. SMART-Gilas limited Uzbekistan to just five points in the second quarter to break away for a 39-21 halftime lead before cruising to victory in the second half.

Chan, who had only managed to score five points total in the Philippines’ first two games in the tournament, had a breakout performance with 20 points, including four three-pointers, in just 18 minutes of play while Jared Dillinger was the only other Filipino in double figures. Five others players scored seven or more points for SMART-Gilas.

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Gilas Pilipinas crushed the Lebanon Cedars to notch their first win, 78-68, in the FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday.

Marcus Douthit led the Filipinos with a double-double performance of 25 points and 21 rebounds.

Douthit also received scoring support from his teammates and this enabled Gilas to upset Fadi El-Khatib’s high-scoring game.

Fadi El-Khatib led Lebanon with 24 points.

Naturalized center Marcus Douthit showed exactly why he’s such an important member of the SMART-Gilas national team as he dominated on the floor to help the Philippines defeat Lebanon, 78-68, in their Group A clash in the 4th FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

Douthit posted 25 points, 21 rebounds and one crucial block on longtime Lebanon star Fadi El-Khatib with under a minute to play as SMART-Gilas notched its first win of the tournament.

Gilas trailed Lebanon after a very tight first half that saw neither team lead by more than five points. Behind El-Khatib, who had 15 points and six rebounds in the first two periods, and their own naturalized player Garnett Thompson, who had 13 and seven, the Lebanese held a slim three-point edge, 41-38, at the halftime break.