MANILA, Philippines — Coach Yeng Guiao remains confident of Team Pilipinas’ chances going into the penultimate window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, ignoring the three losses his wards absorbed in four tuneup games wth foreign teams.
After a split against Jordan, the Filipinos lost to Lebanon, including a 71-58 setback on Sunday night to cap their week-long tune-up series.
Guiao did give the team a piece of his mind after the game for what he labelled as ‘a lack of effort’ on the part of the players, although that did not deter him from believing the nationals will deliver when it matters most.
“Their competitive nature was a bit disappointing because I felt they could have exerted more effort,” said Guiao after the game watched by a jampacked crowd at the Meralco gym.
“But we’re positive we can play a good game against Kazakhstan on Friday.”
Team Pilipinas opens its campaign in the fifth window of the qualifier this weekend, followed by the game against Iran on Dec. 3. Both matches will be played at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The team will use the next few days to put together what it learned from its tune-up games with Lebanon and Jordan, said Guiao.
“We have a lot of work to do, which we hope to make it matter in the games that are more important to us – which is the Kazakhs and Iran games,” said the national coach.
The team’s final 12-man roster will be announced by Guiao and his coaching staff on the eve of its match against Kazakhstan.
Instead of trimming the current pool to 15 players, Guiao and his staff will just announce right away the composition of the final roster against the Kazakhs.
“We already have an idea on who will form the final 12. The scrimmages and tune-up games were big factors in choosing the players,” he said.
“Diretso na kami sa 12. We already have an idea.”