RP-Lhuillier team learns lesson from Jones Cup

RP Cebuana Lhuillier may have fallen short of its secondary objective of improving the fifth place finish of the Philippines in the last Jones Cup International basketball tournament in 2002, but still it was worth the experience and lessons learned.

If based solely on the team’s 1-7 win-loss record at the recently concluded Jones Cup in Taipei, the team’s stint indeed looks disappointing and national team manager Jean Henri Lhuillier does not hide his disappointment particularly with the games where the Philippines lost by wide margins.

"To be honest, I was not satisfied by what happened, I am a sportsman and I can accept losing by two, three points, but then after seeing some of the games myself, I understand better than ever the need for a long-term development program for the national team, something that we have started already. Aside from facing some teams that were bigger and taller, we also played games with teams who have been playing together for a long time, and very familiar with the international style of basketball, for us, that was the very first time the team is playing in a tournament," said Lhuillier.

Assistant team manager Danny Francisco also cited the current experience of the American team composed of NBA players who are struggling against European teams and even lost badly to Italy, "and they have the likes of Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson on that team already, that should tell us something."

For the record, the team lost by wide margins to some teams like the eventual champions Chinese Taipei White, 114-79, and their Blue Team, 88-69, also to defending champions Australia, represented by the Perth Wildcats, 119-79, to South Korea’s all-star collegiate team, 83-65, and Japan, 84-68, while to some teams, RP Cebuana Lhuillier put up a gallant stand and just lost steam in the last quarter like the games against Canada which won, 85-70, and the tall Qatar team, which pulled out a 10-point victory, 80-70, only in the last four minutes of the game, with the Philippines missing Ricky Calimag and Don Villamin in the game.

The Philippines however, routed a tall but young German team, 101-50, for its only victory.

Lhuillier also pointed out that the Chinese Taipei team that won the championship was formed three years ago, the young Koreans have been playing for over a year and compete regularly as a team outside their country, "in our case, we have barely started our program and I understand the difficult situation of our coaching staff who had to make the most of the players available to them, and that is why we are reiterating our willingness to work with all the people concerned with Philippine basketball. Instead of criticizing our performance in Taipei, we should join hands and work together," added Lhuillier whose agreement with the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) is up to 2006.

While in Taipei, Lhuillier also had the opportunity to meet other Asia FIBA officials, including Malaysia’s Datu Yeoh Choo Hock, who gave credit to what Lhuillier had started with the national team’s long- term program, in fact it includes building a training facility complete with a covered court, imported physical conditioning equipment, viewing rooms, and dormitory facilities for the national team.

On his part, Vergeire related that in their previous trip to South Korea before the Jones Cup, what he saw was the gap between the Philippines and other Asian nations in terms of training regimens, but in the recent Jones Cup, what he saw was the wide gap between our players and the others in terms of physical conditioning.

"Here, we pace the conditioning program of the players, with the others, they put up a high norm from the start, and when you have players in tip top condition, then they can do whatever you ask them to do, also in the game maturity of our players. What we saw in Taipei were results already, telling us we have a long way to go," said Vergeire.