|
 TOKUSHIMA,
Japan—The
Philippines came out smoking against
China
which it beat, 70-74, in Day Two of the Fiba-Asia
Olympic qualifying tournament Sunday.
If the
Nationals needed the whole game to make 15 field goals
in their first game against
Iran,
they need only 30 minutes to match the same number.
The
Filipinos—considered one of the smallest teams in the
tournament—are third overall in rebounding in the
16-nation event. Against Iran and China, which both has
a couple of seven-footers, the Philippines enjoyed a
plus-eight edge in total rebounding.
If free
throws were considered the RP team’s Achilles heel, it
hasn’t been that way in two games so far. The Filipinos,
who are shooting 76.4 percent from the line, leads the
tournament in that department. The Philippines, though,
is in the bottom three in three-pointers made and
percentage.
Coach
Chot Reyes employed a nine-man rotation, electing not to
use Renren Ritualo and Eric Menk. Danny Seigle, who was
nursing an injury on his left calf, also sat out.
****
Too
thin.
How thin is the line between living and dying in the
Group of Death? Ozone thin.
In Group
A, the average margin of victories after Sunday’s games
is 7.5 points. Only Jordan’s victory over China
Saturday, a 13-point decision, was won by double digits.
Of the
five single-digit decisions in the first eight games,
three of them were accomplished in Group A.
The rest
of the groups? Call it the Group of Walking in the Park.
In Group
D, the average margin is 20.8 points and in Group B, it
is 24.8 points.
And in
Group C? A whopping 43.8 points. In fact, Group C games
has posted the two most lopsided victories in the
tournament as of Sunday—57 points in Qatar’s win over
India and 54 points by Kazakhstan over Indonesia .
After
the Sunday games, it was still uncertain which among the
countries in Group A were going to make it to the top
eight in the quarterfinals
The only
thing certain is, well, the Group of Death is living up
to its billing.
****
Defying
‘death’.
It turns out the Philippines isn’t the only one making a
fuss out of the draw.
Mario
Palma expressed his frustration over what he alleged as
a vicious process that put together four of the top
teams early in the tournament.
“It puts
a lot of pressure on the teams,” Jordan ’s head coach
said, describing the predicament of the Philippines,
China, Iran and Palma’s team which are all jockeying for
position in Group A. “When you look at the other groups,
the good teams are beating the bad ones by 20, even 40.
With us, it’s always close.”
The
draw, which decides which countries go together in the
preliminaries, was based on rankings in the last Fiba-Asia
qualifiers held in 2005—the same year the Philippines
was suspended.
Because
the Philippines was out of the radar and two years in
international basketball is considered a long time, the
draw is considered out of date.
“[The
draw] is a joke,”
Palma, a Brazilian, added. “It’s ridiculous. This group is
so strong the team that is eliminated from this group
can win the championship.”
****
Green in
its face.
Sudachi-kun sounds like a fancy variety of some exotic
delicacy, but it’s far from it. It is the name of the
mascot in the Fiba-Asia qualifiers.
The
choice of sudachi, a type of citrus fruit similar to
calamansi, was over 1,574 pieces of work raised for an
athletic meet in 1993 held in Tokushima. The mascot
wears No. 24 because this is the same number of times
the Fiba-Asia qualifiers has been held.
It’s a
pity Toroman Rajko has only coached Iran for three
months but it doesn’t look like the adjustment has been
difficult.
In the
Fiba-Asia qualifiers, the Serbian-born coach has
transformed the Iranians into a team that is capable of
making it all the way to the Olympics.
Under
Rajko, Iran has won three straight games to advance into
the quarterfinals unscathed. And that is no mean feat
considering he did it in Group A, the so-called Group of
death where the Philippines is grouped.
“I think
it takes three things to be a successful team,” he said.
“You need the quality, meaning good players. You need to
work hard. And you need luck. I say surviving our group,
luck had a lot to do with it.”
When
pressed to ask who he thought was the strongest in his
group besides his team, he played safe.
“The
Jordan coach is right,” Rajko said. “All the teams are
strong, that it is a pity two of them won’t have a
chance to go to the quarterfinals.” |
