It is less than 100 hours before Gilas Pilipinas finally plunges into action in the much-awaited opening of the Fiba World Cup men’s basketball championship.
Our team goes up against the Dominican Republic at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, after the 4 p.m. opener between Angola and Italy in the four squads’ Group stage battles where the top two teams will advance to the next round. They will next play the top two teams of another Group.
Gilas meets Angola on Aug. 27 before winding up its preliminary schedule on Aug. 29 against Italy.
The bottom two squads of each Group in the 32-nation competition drop to the losers’ circle and will play the bottom two teams of another Group in matches set in Manila, Okinawa and Jakarta.
Italy is definitely the top seed in our Group due to its handsome ranking as No. 10 in the world behind No. 1 Spain, 2 USA, 3 Australia, 4 Argentina, 5 France, 6 Serbia, 7 Slovenia, 8 Lithuania and 9 Greece.
With its ranking as 41st in the world, Angola needs a miracle to defeat Italy.
We are merely a notch higher than Angola. So that on paper, Gilas trails the Dominican Republic, world ranking-wise. Dominican Republic is 23rd as against Gilas’ 40th ranking.
The Dominican Republic, located in North America off the Caribbean region sharing the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, is populated mostly by multi-racials of predominantly European and African descent with a lesser degree of Amerindian admixture (Wikipedia). That’s why they are absolutely taller than us.
But even as “height is might” in basketball — and rankings are also at times quite deceiving — Gilas can offset the opposition’s built-in ceiling with its innate talent and skill.
Gilas showed that when it dumped Ivory Coast in an 85-62 drubbing of their Aug. 18 friendly, with its triple towers of 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto, 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo (13 points) and 6-foot-10 AJ Edu (12) scoring each in double figures. Sotto’s 10 points came from 5-of-6 shooting.
“First time we played as a complete team,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes, who rested Jordan Clarkson in the entire fourth quarter after the Utah Jazz star fired 13 first-half points. “I’m satisfied.”
“The Gilas coach was good,” said Dejan Prokic, Ivory Coast’s eminent Slovenian coach. “I’m impressed.”
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Congrats to my dear friend, Evelyn Quinsay, for her strong runner-up finish in the just-ended 31st Durian Tee at Davao’s tough Apo Golf & Country Club, missing the overall crown by a single shot. Cheers, Eve!