Right On Track (Smart Gilas)

source: Joel Orellana | businessmirror.com.ph

They have kept guest team Smart Gilas winless in the KFC-Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup, but coaches Yeng Guiao, Chot Reyes and Jong Uichico say the developmental team is on the right direction.

The team looking to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics and coached by Serbia’s Rajko Toroman has a 0-3 record in the tough pro league.

“They have a fluid game and they will be really good,” said Ginebra’s Uichico, who mentored the Philippine squad in the 2002 Busan Asian Games in South Korea.

“Mahaba pa na naman ang time nila and I think they are on the right track. The team is very young, they just need experience. They will be there in proper time,” he added.

Smart Gilas is entered as a guest team in the All-Filipino tournament, giving Burger King a good fight in its losing debut but absorbing huge losses back to back.

Guiao’s Burger King mauled Smart Gilas, 115-105, Reyes’s Talk ’N Text steamrollered the young squad, 103-70, while Uichico’s Kings demolished a CJ Giles-less Gilas, 100-72.

Uichico had been in this situation when his national pool back then, divided into two, were also massacred in a PBA stint, recording a combined 11-21 win-loss mark.

For Guiao, the physicality of games in the league will prepare the young Gilas team mentally and physically for the toughness of the international arena.

“They’ll get better and tougher,” said Guiao, who piloted the PBA-backed Team Pilipinas to eighth place in the 2009 Fiba-Asia qualifier in Tianjin, China.

“The PBA brand of play is less physical than the international brand of game but at least now they are getting a feel of it,” he added.

Both Uichico and Guiao agreed that having a naturalized player will be a big help in the team’s campaign. Giles, a six-foot-11 American cager, is being eyed by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) to be the country’s naturalized player for 2011 regional qualifier.

For Reyes, the Smart Gilas team is a few pieces away from becoming real competitive in the Asian region.

“This is a very strong team. Hindi pa sila buo and give them a couple of months, this team will really be good,” said Reyes, who led the RP 5 to a ninth-place finish in the 2007 Asia qualifier in Tokushima, Japan.

Reyes said Filipino-American shooting guard Chris Lutz of Marshall University and six-foot-nine Junmar Fajardo from Cebu could be the team’s missing pieces.

“Lutz is a good, big point guard who has a deep understanding of the game. We know for a fact that in the Fiba Asia, we need to have a big point guard and Lutz can take that spot,” said Reyes.

“As for Fajardo, project pa siya but Giles and Japeth [Aguilar] have to battle taller players sa practice para masanay sila,” he added.