The Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team needs to prepare longer to become a more competitive squad in the future.
This, among the things, concerns national coach Yeng Guiao after Iran pulled off a 95-75 demolition of Gilas Pilipinas Sunday night at the Wukesong Sport Arena in Beijing.
As the Iranians claimed their first and only win in Group N and placed 30th at the end of the Classification 17-32 Phase of the FIBA World Basketball 2019, Guiao felt that for the national squad to be able to compete against the world’s best teams, Gilas needs better players, more exposure and longer time to get ready.
“Preparing for the World Cup doesn’t just take months, the program needs to be set years earlier,” said Guiao in online statements.
In becoming a very competitive squad in the future, Gilas will need to have players who can match up better with bigger opposing cagers from other continents.
And these selected players may need to have more exposure to world-level basketball than they are currently having.
“We need certain types of players and we need more exposure to this level of play,” added Guiao.
Now that their campaign is over with five straight losses, Guiao looks forward to the national squad that will be formed and compete when Philippines plays host to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023.
“These are the things that I guess we need to work on, but it’s always long-term. I don’t think there’s any short-term solution to that,” said Guiao.
One of the revelations in the World Cup for the national team is newcomer CJ Perez, who played for the Lyceum Pirates for two seasons and put his team in the finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“If there’s any positive from our games, it’s that our young guys have played hard. CJ (Perez) has played his heart out, so that’s something positive we can pick up. I had some inkling of it from what I’ve seen in Spain, and from what I’ve seen in our practices,” said Guiao, who hinted the Perez will have more exposure with Gilas in the future.
“I’m not really surprised. He has had to raise his level of play very quickly for this World Cup, so I think it’s also still a bright spot for us. We haven’t seen his full potential yet. We’ll see a lot more of CJ Perez,” said Guiao.