MOVE ON, GILAS
By Tonton Alcos-Antogop
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 30 Sep 2014
#Puso (heart) as battle cry of Gilas Pilipinas was impressive.
That was a fact, ending the Korean curse in the FIba-Asia championships earlier that sent us to the Fiba world cup in Spain.
In there, we showed to all and sundry that we deserve to be included again in the world basketball map by engaging the basketball giants tooth and nail and our losses, were heart-breakers.
Except against Greece which beat us by twelve, Croatia, Argentina and Puerto Rico, won only through small margins, which prompted basketball aficionados to give us respect, more so that we pulled one against Senegal, the first victory of the country in the basketball world cup for almost forty years.
But seemed short lived because we displayed our weaknesses in the current Asian games in Incheon, South Korea.
Okay, Andray Blatche was not around which changed the complexion and that precisely was the problem of the Gilas team because it failed to remedied the situation well.
The team do not lacked the tenacity and determination but somehow, if it is sales and marketing, the team does not have the closing skills. Good at starting things that could lead to close a business transaction but when it was about to happen it crumbles.
Let me illustrate further, showing heart, the team started strong by
piling up points against Korea and Kazakstan but they blew it towards game time, which meant there goes the problem, from coaching to the individual abilities of the players themselves.
If at all, the raining threes of Jimmy Alapag and Jeff Chan against Korea should have been compensated by the others and Chot Reyes should have not benched Marcus Douthit in that crucial game and Douthit's dismal game against the Qataris should have not been the ground in sidelining the naturalized player.
Instilling discipline is good but i think, Reyes who is also doubling as motivational speaker shot his self in the foot.
Instead of just allowing Douthit to sit while his team mates crushed to the crawling Koreans who sent their best shooters, Douthit should have been allowed to play to show his real worth and regain his confidence in the process. You can never motivate by punishment, it is never effective, which is why psychologist abhors corporal punishment to an erring child.
Reyes should have then talked heart to heart (puso sa puso) to Douthit, supposedly to manifest an example of their battle cry and sort things out. That would have been the right thing to do instead of going to media and blamed Douthit for the loss to the Qataris.
It is a fact that Gilas is oozing with talent and they might have that puso in each one of them but it is never enough in a team game like basketball.
It involves most importantly a mentor and not just a plain coach, one who leads the way, one who inspires, apart from being one who would devise the plans and strategies on how to win games.
Amongst the strategies is on how to keep a huge lead, instill consistency to the boys, keep their cohesion, motivate them to hang on, talk things over after every game instead of first ranting in the media on the subpar performance of one so the public may know.
All told, the Asian debacle, if Reyes would be man enough was hugely caused by him but do not get me wrong, there is still another Asian games coming, there is the Olympic qualifier next year and another Fiba world cup in 2019, the Gilas team should bounce back and Chot Reyes should learn his lesson.
All the more that he has to manifest more what #Puso is all about. It is not about quitting, not giving up. It is about rising up from failure. First things first however, Reyes should accept responsibility and move on.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Tonton Alcos-Antogop.
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