After absorbing a 47-point beatdown to the heavily-loaded Gilas Pilipinas squad on Saturday night at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, Singapore is now off to a dismal 0-2 start in the 2017 SEABA Championship for Men in Manila.
But new head coach Franco Arsego does not feel any disappointment nor frustration towards his team’s back-to-back defeats. For him, it was more of a moral victory, rather than a bitter, lopsided setback.
“We’re playing one of the best teams in the region, and I thought we set some targets, and we achieved them,” said Arsego after their 113-66 loss. “We got the points that we wanted to. So even point spread, with the boys in the team, so much better than game one.
“So I’m looking forward to continuing to maintain that standing for the rest of the tournament. That would be great.”
Coming into the tourney, Singapore was among the favorites, given that they fielded six players from the esteemed ABL team Singapore Slingers. But in reality, the national team is in a rebuilding phase under the Australian mentor, who took place of long-time coach Neo Beng Siang.
“They’ve been in a really great system for the last 12 years with the same head coach, and it’s now time to change. I think we’re in a little bit of a transitional situation with a couple of older players going out, trying to find some younger players to come in,” explained Arsego.
“The goals are really to come here and compete, be able to deliver on the things that we worked on briefly. I think tonight we showed that and I was very happy about that.”
And given the circumstance, medals are the least of Singapore’s concern, as they are more focused on long-term improvement.
“Are we about getting medals? No, I think we’re about improvement. And so from game one to game two, we improved. Once you get into that space, I think your next goal is how consistent can we get to that level of play for the remainder of the tournament.
“If I can tick a few of those boxes off, I’ll be a pretty happy coach,” said Arsego.
