With a young squad reminiscent of the early incarnations of Gilas Pilipinas, head coach Josh Reyes emphasized that besides winning the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge Cup, the ultimate goal is for the young cadets to gain international experience.
“I think it is unfair to expect a lot from these kids. We are asking them to sacrifice and battle for us,” said the second-generation basketball coach on Wednesday evening. “Isasabak natin sila with these FIBA giants and to accompany that with huge expectations is unfair for them.”
Days prior to its last practice, the national team lost its most senior member, 27-year-old JP Erram, to an ACL injury making the already-young squad even younger. Moreover, Bobby Ray Parks and Kiefer Ravena, two cadets that have vast international experience, also withdrew from the pool.
Even with the circumstances around him and his team, Reyes shared that the team has gone a long way and is progressing, matching his expectations.
“We’ve gotten along as far as we could have. Given the circumstances we’ve been progressing really well,” he shared.
“That’s partly to do with most of the guys have been under me before. Most of them are familiar with the system. So that helps a lot.”
Looking forward to the competition that will see Gilas Pilipinas facing Chinese-Taipei and India in the group stages, Reyes stressed that even if the pundits are saying that the group is not as tough as the others, it is still no walk in the park.
“There’s no easy group naman. If you look at all the teams there’s no really easy grouping. We’ll just try to best to compete with these men kasi mga mama na kalaban natin.”
“India is a tough team because this is the same team that beat China on the same tournament. When they started, they were getting blown out by 40 to 50 points because they were young. Now they’re men and a tough team so its the same with us,” he reflected.
“Hopefully, we can sneak a few wins here and there but really these kids need a lot of experience and that’s what’s these games are for.”
