Manny inspires Phl U-17 squad

LAS VEGAS – For Philippine U-17 national basketball team coach Jamike Jarin, qualifying for the FIBA World Cup in Dubai on Aug. 8-16 was a proud moment and meeting Manny Pacquiao in his Mandalay Bay Resort suite here Wednesday will inspire the Sinag players to compete 40 minutes in every game like 12 rounds in every fight.

Jarin, 43, arrived from Manila last Sunday with the U-17 team for twice-a-day training at the Joe Abunassar Impact facility. The 12 players who took the Philippines to the FIBA-Asia finals in Tehran last October are with Jarin, assistant coaches Jigs Mendoza, Mike Oliver and Dennis Llapes, team physician Dr. Jet Nieto and logistics director Andrew Teh. Jarin also brought along practice players Zachary Huang of Cebu, Rap Escalona of Ateneo and Evan Nelle of San Beda.

The 12 players are twins Mike and Matthew Nieto of Ateneo, Carlo Abadeza of La Salle Greenhills, Richard Escoto of FEU, Mike de la Cruz of La Salle Greenhills, Mikel Panlilio of International School, Paul Desiderio of UP, Arnie Padilla of Ateneo de Cebu, Jolo Mendoza of Ateneo, Jolo Go of Hope Christian, Enzo Navarro of San Sebastian and Miguel Dario of UP Integrated School.

The courtesy call on Pacquiao was arranged by Gerry Peñalosa. It was an unforgettable moment for the coaches and players to meet the Filipino icon. “When Manny fights, it’s for our country,” said Jarin. “He fights for all of us. Like Manny, we’ll do our best in Dubai. Our work isn’t nearly as hard as his. We go out there to shoot the ball while he has to throw and take punches. He’s our inspiration. We’ll be up against tough opposition in Dubai but we’ll battle it out just like Manny battles it out.”

In Dubai, the Philippines is bracketed in the Group of Death with two-time defending champion USA, Angola and Greece. “It’s a daunting challenge,” said Jarin who led Ateneo to eight UAAP junior titles in 13 years and is now an assistant coach with Talk ‘N’ Text in the PBA. “We play Angola then Greece and finally, the US. At least, we will have scouted the US before playing them. All we know is the US will be led by the next LeBron James who’s Seventh Woods and Malik Newman and their coach is the legendary Don Showalter of Iowa.”

The US won the first FIBA World U-17 Cup in Hamburg in 2010 and repeated in the second tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 2012. The Philippines failed to qualify in both competitions, finishing fourth in the FIBA-Asia qualifiers first with coach Eric Altamirano and second with coach Olsen Racela. Last year, Jarin made history by gaining a ticket to the World Cup with a silver finish at the FIBA-Asia qualifiers, losing an 85-78 decision to China in the finals.

“Our goal was to qualify for the World Cup and we did it,” said Jarin. “We lost to Chinese-Taipei in the preliminaries but beat them, 77-72, in the semifinals. Against China, we were down by four with four minutes left and we missed a layup that if we made it, could’ve changed the complexion of the game. Our biggest guy was 6-4 but China had two seven-footers, two 6-9 forwards and a 6-4 point guard. Their average height was 6-7. Before the finals, I told the guys to just enjoy themselves and I promised to dance on the sidelines every time we made a basket. The experience will go a long way in making them better players and better men. We know the competition will be tough in Dubai. We’re training hard, working hard. Of course, we’re happy to go to Dubai but we’re not content just to be there. We’ll go out to compete.”

It will be the first-ever FIBA World U-17 Cup in Asia. The 16-team tournament will assemble Angola, Greece, USA and the Philippines in Group A, Japan, France, Canada and Australia in Group B, Puerto Rico, host United Arab Emirates, Italy and Spain in Group C and Argentina, Serbia, China and Egypt in Group D. After the first round, the four teams in each group will be ranked according to standings and advance to the knockout crossover round-of-16. In the round-of-16 pairings, No. 1 of Group A will play No. 4 of Group B and No. 4 of Group A will play No. 1 of Group B. Each team is guaranteed to play four games.

Jarin, a Bobby Knight disciple, said in Tehran, he encouraged the players to work as a unit and accept their roles. “Paul, for instance, likes to shoot threes but I told him, his job is to penetrate because we have enough outside shooters, that his time will come,” he said. “In our first play in the finals, we set up Paul for a three and he made it. We’ve got a group of guys who overachieve and work hard for the love of the game and country. We train without allowances, we work with a lean budget. In fact, we want to thank the Gilas team for contributing P60,000 and (Talk ‘N’ Text team manager) Paolo (Trillo) for adding to our budget with his personal money for our trip to the US. Everyone pitched in. It’s a great experience for the guys and I keep reminding them to enjoy the moment. We’ve got to be calm about things. When we get to Dubai, that’s when we’ll give it all we’ve got.”

The delegation will train in Las Vegas until April 19 then move to Los Angeles for three more workout days before flying back to Manila. Tune-up games are being arranged in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Helping out the group are Las Vegas-based George Afable and Los Angeles-based former PBA cager Onie Padilla.