RP cagers have long way to go

The recent goodwill series of games the RP Cebuana Lhuillier played in Seoul, South Korea showed how wide the gap is between Philippine basketball and the way the game is played by Asian basketball powers like Korea.

The newly-formed national training team, handled by Dong Vergeire and Boysie Zamar and fully supported by Cebuana Lhuillier, played three games with the Han Yang University, one of Korea’s top collegiate teams, losing the first but got shocked in the next two games which they lost by a wide margin.

"We knew there exists a gap between us and the basketball powers in Asia like China and Korea," Vergeire said, adding that "what we did not know was how wide the gap was, in my case, I found out that what I have been teaching our players, the training drills and techniques, they were just the tip of the iceberg compared to how they do things there."

Citing basic differences, assistant coach Boysie Zamar talked of passing, shooting, and physical conditioning drills by the Koreans, "here, we ask our players to shoot 200 times in practice, in Korea, players make 500 attempts daily, here, doing 200 in a skipping rope is enough, there, they spend one full hour just doing skipping rope, while for physical conditioning, the premium there is developing speed and agility, not in bulking up."

Through repetitive drills, the Koreans have mastered the art of shooting the ball, looking for the open man at all times, and eliminating practically the dribble as a major source of turnovers through continuous passes, according to Vergeire.

"I guess the biggest impact was on our players, including the veteran players, most of them are stars in their provinces or schools, but here they found out that what they have been doing does not work, and now they realize the need for adhering to what the coaching staff is teaching them," according to assistant team manager Danny Francisco, representing team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier.

The team had the opportunity to meet Korean basketball legend Shin Dong Pa, still revered and respected by the present Korean players, and Shin cited the Philippines’ insistence in playing the game the American way, not the Asian or international way.