GILAS PILIPINAS COACH CHOT REYES DREAMS OF A SECOND ROUND FINISH
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 04 Feb 2014
Gilas Pilipinas national basketball coach Chot Reyes has no illusions about the Philippines chances of progressing to the second round of 16 teams in the World Cup in Spain late August.
After the draw which saw the Philippines bracketed in Group B with Argentina, Croatia, Puerto Rico, Senegal and Greece, Reyes told the Manila Standard that he believes we have a chance to beat Senegal and Puerto Rico and enter the second round although it would be very tough.
In a FIBA TV interview Reyes stressed ?We are very proud. We relish this experience. It's the first time in 40 years and its an honor to be drawn with Argentina and super powers like Croatia. We like the fact that we are playing in Seville. We know we have quite a big Filipino population there. We expect a lot of our countrymen to come out to watch the games 'live' while people from the Philippines are going to fly over to watch the games.?
Reyes conceded ?we have no illusions about our group which is very tough but like I said we relish it. We are going to prepare very, very hard. For a team like the Philippines there is no easy group for us in a competition like this.?
Reyes said that in his mind he had ?prepared mentally and psychologically since we will be up against very tough competition. We would absolutely love to get to the 2nd round and to do that I think we need to win 2 games and give us a chance to progress to the final 16. That would be a huge victory not only for our team but the Filipino nation and in the end we are really doing it for our country our flag. To make the 16 would be fantastic.?
He revealed that he had received almost a thousands tweets from Filipinos who were awake at 2:00 a.m. following the draw because ?that?s how much it means to them to come back and play in the world stage. Personally it is a dream for me to be in this environment. Basketball in Philippines is not the No.1 sport it?s the only sport. We are fanatical about our devotion to basketball.?
Photo: Chot Reyes (L) with Ukraine coach and former NBA coach Mike Fratello.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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