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NAKHON
RATCHASIMA—If coach Junel Baculi was in his Project 8
home in Quezon City Wednesday afternoon, he would have
been in a supermarket nearby preparing for a feast in
the evening.
That
feast happened to be his 45th birthday. And for the
first time in his life, he celebrated away from home and
with one bitter pill he is about to swallow—prune his
15-member men’s basketball pool to 12 fighting men.
“I
should be in a grocery right now, namamalengke at
mamyang gabi may salu salo sa bahay at konting inuman ng
barkada,” Baculi told BusinessMirror.
Merlo Albano of the
Philippines tries to defend possession in an RP-Vietnam
preliminary match in the Southeast Asian Games Wednesday
in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. -- NonieReyes
Although
he refused to admit it, he looked doubly troubled. At 10
a.m. Thursday, he will announce during the managers’
meeting for basketball in the 24th Southeast Asian Games
who his official lineup will be.
“Pinakamahirap
gawin ito bilang coach. We have been together since
July, we have been through a lot, we have been to places
competing as a team—to Jakarta, Brunei, Korea and
Singapore. And then this,” he said.
“But
it’s a decision I have to make,” he added. “The coaching
staff has a say on the team, the coaching staff
recommends … but at the end of the day, as head coach, I
have to decide.”
He
refused to name names Wednesday but hinted the team
would be “not that tall and not that small.”
He
furthered: “It would be a sort of a shooting team, a
running team,” he added.
Although
Baculi is reportedly set to choose among deadly shooters
Chris Tiu, Patrick Cabahug, Jonathan Fernandez, Erick
dela Cuesta and Jeff Chan who will fill up the final two
spots of the RP roster, two days before competitions in
the sport dearest to the Filipinos’ heart officially
kick off at the Keelapirum Stadium.
The
coaching staff met after dinner last night and Baculi
said they will meet again at breakfast Thursday before
heading for a final practice before the 1 p.m. managers’
meeting.
On
Wednesday morning, 12 hours after the team arrived at
the Athletes’ Village, Baculi ordered for a light one
and a half hour workout at the competition venue, the
Keelapirum Stadium inside the Suranaree University of
Technology.
They had
another scrimmage in the afternoon to hone further for
their schedule in these Games where they meet Cambodia,
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand (in that order)
beginning Friday.
Joe Lipa,
the many-time national coach with gold medals tucked in
his waist, said the team is now prepared for battle.
“The coaching staff of Junel has prepared the team very
well,” he said.
Lipa,
known for being temperamental from the bench,
acknowledged how the SEA Games opposition has prospered
though: “The SEA Games teams have become of equal size
to us, unlike before when we were taller and heftier.
Only the techniques and individual talent of Filipino
players separate us from the rest,” he said, adding “and
it will be team effort that will make the difference.”
Chino
Trinidad, the commissioner of the Philippine Basketball
League, said play in the SEA Games is all about
Filipinos.
“The
Filipinos are setting the standards. It’s about how high
we set the bar [and the rest follows],” said Trinidad,
referring to the effort particularly of the Thais and
the Indonesians—and even the Malaysians who have beaten
the Philippines twice in the SEA Games (1979 and
1989)—have put into their basketball programs.
Louie
Alas, also a gold medal winner from the bench in the SEA
Games and the team’s top scout, continued to be wary of
the officiating that could possibly favor the hosts. The
Indonesians, too, could be there fighting primarily
because their victory over the country in a club
championships last summer has boosted their confidence.
The
confidence over the basketball gold medal—the mint that
has always mattered most for the country in the SEA
games—came amid a 10-0 blowout the Filipinas got from
their Vietnamese opponents in women’s football Thursday
at the Tumbon Mueangpug Stadium.
Extremely overwhelmed were the Filipinas that they
allowed the Vietnamese 22 goal opportunities. The
Philippines made two shots in the contest that only
yielded how far the Vietnamese have gone in the sport
and how low football is regarded in the Philippines.
The
Philippines has earlier drawn Laos, 2-2, to be at the
bottom of the group A standings. Thailand has blanked
Malaysia (6-0) and Myanmar (5-0) to lead Group A.
A day
before the Games formally start, the hosts started to
break away with 18 gold, 19 silver and seven bronze
medals, followed by Singapore with 10-6-6
(gold-silver-bronze) and Vietnam (8-5-14).
Malaysia
and Myanmar already had two gold medals each to stand
before the
Philippines
(0-3-1) in the standings. Indonesia had five bronze
medals so far.
Computer
glitch
Confusion marred the arrival of Team Philippines in
Thailand on Wednesday as Filipino athletes and officials
had to suffer the inconvenience of being held at the
Bangkok airport for three hours on what organizers
claimed was a “computer glitch.”
More
than 200 athletes and officials, comprising the biggest
RP delegation to this biennial meet led by Philippine
Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William “Butch”
Ramirez, waited for hours to secure their accreditation
forms.
Ramirez
was not available to comment as he is still busy in
helping secure most of the athletes’ accreditation cards
at press time.
National
women’s basketball coach Fritz Gaston, who was among
those held at the Bangkok airport, however, commented in
jest: “It seems they’re trying to soften us.”
Athletes
from basketball, athletics, boxing and gymnastics, among
others have yet to leave for a four-hour land travel to
Nakhon Ratchasima as reports from Bangkok were coming
in.
Organizers claimed the Games computer system was down
for hours since the Filipinos’ arrival and was only
fixed at 6 pm. The volume of athletes coming in,
however, made it difficult for organizers to process
their cards quickly. |
