Moments after playing in their last game in the 2018 FIBA 3X3 World Cup, Christian Standhardinger was still feeling plenty of regret. He believes that they could have been in the next round if not for their mishaps in the end-game in their matches against highly-touted teams Mongolia and Canada.
“I think it’s a little bitter for me it’s bitter. I’m happy that we won two games, but we should’ve won against Canada, and we should’ve won against Mongolia,” opined Stanhardinger, as Gilas 3×3 lost to both teams by an average margin of 2.5 points.
“I felt like when you play the game you feel better or not better. I honestly felt that we were better but it was just the lack of experience and that’s why we didn’t win those games.”
And the Filipinos were able to hold their ground against the best 3×3 squads in the world with just 11 training sessions under the belt. It made the 28-year-old wonder, what if they’d had more practice?
Thus, the 2017 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist is proposing that this current 3×3 team sticks together for future World Cups.
“Now that we have those experiences, I obviously hope that we stay together and we can make some history with this 3×3 games,” he expressed. “You see Roger [Pogoy], Stan [Pringle], and Troy [Rosario], and myself that we are very committed here and even though we have double practices, we really want to play for the country and it’s really important for us.
“You saw what this guy (Roger) did with the two-pointers. Amazing. He’s made for this physicality, he’s made for 3×3, Troy is made for 3×3 and nobody can stop Stanley. So i think we have a great team.”
He is pleading that they be given a chance to bounce back and grow together.
“Of course we’ll try to do our all but I hope that all of the organizations involved will give us the opportunity to stick together and I think we showed great promise.”
