Uichico still sees a lot of things to fix

by Agnes R. Cruz

	Menk

MANILA: What has the Philippine team learned from their two-game exhibition series with the Melbourne Tigers?

National coach Jong Uichico said it plain and simple: the way to win.

Even when winning in Pusan, particularly against long-time champion China, is almost an uphill climb to Mt. Improbable?

This series showed us the things we still need to fix, said Uichico, the structure is already there but we still need to refine our game. And you can’t do that in practice. One thing more, we are still prone to committing costly mistakes. That’s one thing we saw here — that we need to fix endgame mistakes. We can’t afford to commit those crucial mistakes at endgame in Pusan, said Uichico.

The bench taskmaster, who is seeking to end the Philippines’ 40-year title famine in the regional games, was so thankful to the Tigers for coming over, saying he got some significant insights and his players learned valuable lessons that could help in their campaign in Pusan later this month.

It was, indeed, a screw-tightening experience, said Uichico moments after RP-Selecta escaped with a thrilling 94-91 win over the Melbourne Tigers in the last of their two-game exhibition series which was part of the Nationals’ final stage of preparations for Pusan.

It was Eric Menk, one of the team’s talented Fil-Am cagers, who played the hero’s role and plotted the Nationals’ daring escape over the Melbourne Tigers after beating the final buzzer with a booming three-pointer from the right quartercourt.

Uichico hopes they can arrange some more games with other foreign teams so they can refine their tools for the Asiad hostilities.

But he was convinced the Nationals have improved a lot from the time they went to Italy to play in a mini-tournament, to the time they played Chinese-Taipei also in a two-game series and against the Melbourne Tigers where they suffered a 76-80 defeat in their first meeting.

Coach Allan, coach Eric and myself had talks with coach Lindsay Gaze and we got lots of insights from him. Why this? Why that? We had a lot of questions, said Uichico. Gaze gave Uichico and company some valuable tips.

Among those refinements the Nationals need to carry out, according to Gaze, was the need to put a little more pressure defensively and improve on the quickness in defending the transition game. We scored a lot of points in transition than they should have allowed us. Also, the Nationals showed a lot more fluidity on offense and a lot more faith in their perimeter shots.

Aside from Menk and Racela, the other memebers of the national team are Danny Ildefonso, Asi Taulava, Mick Pennisi, Andy Seigle, Danny Seigle, Rudy Hatfield, Dennis Espino, Kenneth Duremdes, Jeffrey Cariaso, Noy Castillo, Olsen Racela, Chris Jackson, Dondon Hontiveros and Boyet Fernandez.

The Nationals whipped the visiting Chinese-Taipei national team, which is also preparing for the quadrennial regional competition.

They completed their overpowering show with an 82-56 victory in their second and final meeting.

Although the rout was not as brutal as the 95-59 win the Nationals fashioned out in their first game, it was still as convincing.

Chinese-Taipei is one team the Nationals may not even get to face in Pusan.

Uichico said the exhibition games have served their main purpose: getting his players into the groove of the international amateur style of play.

The team needed these wins. Some of our players still don’t have the feel of the international brand of play. That’s why we’re using this pair of tune-up games to get a grip on the amateur style of play, said Uichico.

After the Nationals’ convincing victory, Chinese-Taipei head coach Chien Yi-Fei said coach Tim Cone’s Centennial Team, which settled for a bronze-medal finish behind eventual titlist China and runner-up South Korea in the 1998 edition of the Games in Bangkok, Thailand, may have been better than Uichico’s crew.

Chien, through an interpreter, after losing their two exhibition games against the Nationals by an average margin of 31 points, said: “our current team (Uichico’s) is stronger inside the shaded lane and looks bigger in size but I think the 1998 team is more experienced and plays with more teamwork.” Chien was the starting point guard of the Chinese-Taipei team which lost to the Centennial Team 92-82 in the 1998 Jones Cup Finals and which finished fifth in the Bangkok Asian Games that same year.

Uichico agreed with Chien’s comparison.

That team was more fluid because it had more time to prepare. And offensively, the 1998 team was very smooth because that was their focus then. Our focus is on defense and it’s normal that our offense will struggle, said Uichico.

This is the reason why, according to Uichico, his team needs more amateur-style games. We’re in game shape for the PBA style of play but we have to get more accustomed to the amateur style of play, which is more up and down in tempo, he said.

Four years since the last Asian Games in 1998, the Philippines will embark on a mission yet again to reclaim regional basketball throne from the Chinese with the help of much taller, heftier, quicker and talented Fil-foreign players.

Overall, this marks the fourth time since the open basketball was introduced in 1990 that the PBA will be sending a selection to the Asian Games. The immediate goal is to improve on a bronze medal finish in 1998. The biggest task, however, is obviously to reclaim the throne from China.

A team coached by superstar Robert Jaworski lost to the powerhouse Chinese in the finals of the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, while the squad handled by Norman Black failed to win a medal after finishing fourth in the 1994 Games in Hiroshima.

Cone’s Centennial Team, after months of rigid training at home and abroad, won the bronze medal in Bangkok.

The last time the Philippines won the basketball gold in the Asian Games was in 1962 in Jakarta. The country also won the cage championships in the inaugural Games in 1951 in New Delhi; in 1956 in Manila; and in 1958 in Tokyo. *

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