PHI – We want to push it as far as we can: Guiao

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship): Stating basketball is a religion in Philippines might be an understatement considering massive fan following in the South East Asian nation.

And the performance of the National Team in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship must surely have warmed the cockles of the fans’ heart.

S Mageshwaran of FIBA Asia caught up with the Head Coach Joseller Guiao after Philippines finished their eight-final round games.

Can you analyze the performance of Philippines so far?

Considering everything worked we are pretty satisfied with what has happened so far. We have already improved upon our ninth place in Tokushima.

But we want to push it as far as we can.

We’ll now probably need a miracle now to make it to the top four.

We are up against either China or Jordan.

If we take it as Jordan, we lost to Jordan by 30 points in the William Jones Cup. Now, I don’t know if we have improved by 30 points in such a short period of time.

But we are not giving up on it.

We are going to be there and see what’s the best way we can give ourselves a chance of making it to the top four.

Can you elaborate more about this improvement beyond the ranking?

Yes ranking wise we will finish at least eighth, which is better than Tokushima. And this team has been together only for a couple of months and practicing just once a week.

The other thing is I’m really happy we have readjusting to the FIBA rules. We don’t the whole year experience that some teams have of playing in this style and officiating.

I think the PBA has to put in place a program where we will continuously participate in international tournaments. Just so we don’t get lost in the shuffle.

Now you are looking at not just rising up to the local standard but trying to rise to the Asian standards and probably the world standard.

Instead of merely trying to beat each other in the professional league, the whole league can have the perspective of beating the Korean league or the Japanese league.

How difficult was this adjustment? How did you manage it?

It was very difficult.

Even the week we left for the Jones Cup, some guys were still playing the league finals.

We had just seven-eight players practicing with us and we had to wait for the others to join us.

They come from different systems and different teams.

And when under pressure they go back to their old methods.

But a lot of such resorting to such methods happened in the Jones Cup. It’s got a lot lesser here.

May be that’s why we are performing a lot better.

But I don’t think it’s enough. That’s why I am suggesting that we should have such an experience and exposure the whole year.

On the court, what is the one single point of improvement that has impressed you?

The resilience with which this team has adjusted has been amazing.

We were struggling without three-pointer shooting at the start. But I think our three-point shooting has improved remarkably from our first game.

There’s no way we can win games or survive if we don’t make our outside shots. We are too small to post up any team here.

Is there any player you are pleasantly surprised by the way he has played here?

Cyrus Baguio has been really consistent.

And of course, Willie Miller.

Miller does not play point guard in the Philippines. He plays No 2.

I had to convert him into a point guard because one of our natural point guards could not play.

So Miller had to take up the position. And he has handled the new responsibility really well.