B Gilas wins world’s heart

MANILA, Philippines - Batang Gilas finished 15th of 16 with a 1-6 overall record at the recent FIBA World U17 Championships in Dubai but coach Jamike Jarin said yesterday while the bottom line may not seem impressive, the Philippine team was the overwhelming crowd favorite with its gutsy showing despite a serious disparity in size.

Jarin is now in Doha where he will coach another Philippine squad at the FIBA Asia U18 Championships. He crossed over from Dubai with three holdovers to hook up with the team that arrived from Manila last Sunday. Holdovers Paul Desiderio, Richard Escoto and Jolo Go are joining Radge Tongco, Andre Curacut, Kobe Paras, Aaron Black, Marc Dyke, Dave Yu, Chino Mosqueda, Leonard Santillan and Rey Bienes for the FIBA Asia U18 tournament. The Philippines plays Jordan tonight and South Korea tomorrow in Group B then will play the top three placers from Group A, likely to be China, Qatar and India.

In Dubai, Batang Gilas saved its best for last and crushed host United Arab Emirates, 115-51, to escape the cellar. The Philippines opened with an 82-72 loss to Angola then bowed to Greece, 85-65, USA, 124-64, France, 86-57, Argentina, 84-71, and Egypt, 92.67. Against Argentina, Batang Gilas stormed back from a 22-point deficit with 5:22 left and dropped a 19-4 bomb before succumbing. Argentina dominated the boards, 62-40, but the Philippines made a fight of it with 13 triples.

“For me, being in the World Championships just inspired a lot of young kids because they saw in our boys that no matter how big the odds, maybe there is always a chance for David to defeat Goliath again,” Jarin told The Star. “After every game, the foreign press would always congratulate all of us because of the heart within us.”

Jarin said despite the setbacks, Batang Gilas went down slugging. “Even though we lost by big margins, we all believed that we fought well and gave it our best so this experience will make the guys better not only in the game of basketball but also in the game of life,” he added. “We lost a lot of games but won the hearts of the world.”

Jarin said Batang Gilas was awed by the quality and size of the opposition but wasn’t intimidated. “Of course, the boys were awed by the magnitude of the competition and the players because of their world-class stature,” he said. “I just told them we worked hard, that’s why we qualified. It only showed that we are also world-class athletes. I told them that Iran and South Korea didn’t make it because of us so we earned this through togetherness and hard work. It was very hard to win in this competition. It was a big leap for us to make it to the World Championships where we ended up taking baby steps. Take the game against Argentina. You could see in the boys that they wanted to win even if we were all banged up because we believe Argentina is a podium team.”

What became clear in Jarin’s mind was that Filipinos are at par with the best in the world. “Filipinos are naturally skilful,” he said. “We should do a worldwide search for the next big guy. Because of our showing in Dubai, this opens a door for a kid somewhere in the world to see how Filipinos can be competitive against the best in the world.”

Losing top scorer Jolo Mendoza to a hamstring injury in the team’s fourth game against France was a jolt. Mendoza led Batang Gilas in scoring in the first three games and had nine points before leaving the France contest in the third period. “Jolo’s injury isn’t major,” said Jarin. “It was a pulled hamstring but it will take two weeks to fully recover. Jolo was successful because of his teammates. We were able to set him up for shots. Even though he was the youngest (at 16), I believe he is the best shooter in high school and college. In fact, all the coaches believe he can play anywhere in the world.”

Jarin said he made friends with the opposing coaches particularly from the US, Puerto Rico, Greece and Spain. “They all agreed that we played hard and were coached well but if we had a couple of more inches, we would’ve been in more interesting games,” he said. “At the start of every game, it was close. We led in the first quarter against Angola, Greece and Argentina. We were down 19-18 to the US and trailed by six to France at the half. We just got beaten physically inside in the next quarters. Coach Don Showalter of the US told me I could visit him anytime.”

The team that impressed Jarin was Australia which lost to the US, 99-92, in the final. “US is a given because they are the best,” he said. “Australia was very systematic. Leading big or down big, they always play within the system. China overachieved because they beat Italy in the knockout stage and China can match up with anybody because of their height. Japan finished better than us (14th) because of the luck of the draw. They played United Arab Emirates before us while we played Egypt. With the success of the Batang Gilas and Gilas programs, we are now at par with the giants of Asia.”