Games Thursday (Tianjin gym)
Group A
9 a.m. – RP vs. Sri Lanka
2 p.m. – Korea vs. Japan
TIANJIN, China ” The tortuous road leading to next year’s World Basketball Championship in Turkey starts in this prosperous city for the Powerade-Team Pilipinas, which begins its campaign in the 25th FIBA-Asia Men’s Championship this morning at the Tianjin gym here.
First on the schedule of the Nationals is Sri Lanka, a team that has left coach Yeng Guiao in the dark as he hasn’t seen it play, personally or even on video tapes.
The only time the RP squad got a glimpse of its opponents came Wednesday morning during breakfast at the King Hall Hotel where both teams are staying.
“Physically, medyo maliliit,” Guiao admitted about the Sri Lankans, a people more known to be adept at cricket than basketball.
“Still, we don’t know anything about them,” he added. “We have no scouting report on them and we haven’t seen them play.”
A check with the FIBA-Asia organizers showed only the name of the 12-man roster of Sri Lanka, but no specific positions, heights and weights were included.
The Sri Lankans made it here along with India following the East Asian qualifier that also involved Bangladesh and Pakistan, all cricket-playing nations.
Facing a blank wall, Guiao said there should be no room for complacency in Powerade-RP’s 9 a.m. duel against the island country in South Asia.
“We have to go all out against them regardless of what kind of team they have,” said the RP coach shortly before the team went to practice at the vast Sports Hotel Wednesday.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) official Bernie Atienza and PBA operations and technical chief Rickie Santos later gave the RP team coaching staff last-minute insights about the Sri Lankans when they attended the team managers meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Joining them was SBP executive director Noli Eala, who arrived later in the day.
The RP-Sri Lanka game kicks off a heavy eight-game bill scheduled on opening day of the meet that serves as the qualifier to the 2010 World Basketball Championship in Turkey.
Other inaugural day matches pit Kazakhstan vs. Qatar, Iran vs. Chinese-Taipei, India vs. China, Indonesia vs. United Arab Emirates, Kuwait vs. Uzbekistan, and Lebanon vs. Jordan and Japan vs. Korea, the two teams the PBA-backed Nationals are set to meet in the next two days.
The Nationals will be up against the Japanese on Friday (9 p.m.) and Korea on Saturday (9 p.m.).
Both teams dealt the country contrasting setbacks the first time they met in the Jones Cup two weeks ago.
The Japanese rallied back from a big 19-point deficit in the first half to pull off an 87-85 win, while the Koreans kept the Nationals at bay in the endgame of an 83-80 victory.
Shooting guard James Yap is expected to arrive here Thursday, but will miss the game against Sri Lanka. The Purefoods stalwart failed to leave together with the team to attend the burial of his mother-in-law, former President Corazon C. Aquino.
Yap is married to TV host and movie actress Kris Aquino, the youngest child of Mrs. Aquino and the late former senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino.
Meanwhile, PBA commissioner Renauld ‘Sonny’ Barrios and the league’s board of governors, led by incoming chairman Lito Alvarez of Burger King, are arriving Saturday in time for the game against South Korea.
