Sports Eye
Humiliating defeat by Batang Gilas in Dubai
By Jesus A. Garcia, Jr.
FOR the first time in the history of FIBA Under-17 World Championship now being held in Dubai, UAE, we sent Philippine delegation to this biennial meet after our second place finish behind powerhouse China in the 2013 FIBA Asia Under-16 Championship held in Tehran. But our boys, “Batang Gilas,” lost all its four matches and is already out of contention for the quarterfinals. Our four consecutive debacles were in the hands of lowly rated Angola (72-82), Greece (65-85), the defending champion U.S. (64-124) and the latest was France (57-86).
Our young and less-experienced squad was pummeled by their taller and faster opponents and were obviously outgunned heavily in the three-point area. This tells us again that we’re still far off in contention in James Naismith invented discipline. Yes, we could be the king, dominant and unconquerable in Southeast Asia games and could also be viewed as one of powerhouses in the Orient.
However, our passion and enthusiasm and in this sport are still not enough to conquer the other side of the world. Marami pa tayong kakainin bigas at iinuming tubig, ‘ika nga ng mga matatanda.
As I write this (August 14), our boys are battling the Argentina team in the quarterfinals for 9th to 16th placing. If we’re lucky to beat the football-crazy country Argentina (which is unlikely), then Batang Gilas will advance and enter the semifinal playoffs to collide with the winner of Greece versus Egypt match (Greece most likely to win) scheduled August 15.
Even assuming we’re fortunate to beat Argentina who clobbered Egypt (74-39) and China (75-70) during the qualifying rounds, I believe we cannot hope to beat Greece. Regarded as one of the powerhouses in European continent caging, Greece defeated us by 25 points. Unfortunately, Greece failed to qualify for the top eight even after pounding Pinoys’ conqueror Angola (62-51) and lost only by ten points (73-83) to the powerful U.S. squad during the elimination round.
The decision not to send a send a 3×3 basketball contingent to the second edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to be held in Nanjing, China on August 16-28 is good. The quadrennial meet, first held in Singapore in 2010, is strictly for 14 to 18 years old only. Philippines will only send its best seven young athletes composed of a shooter, swimmer, gymnast, trackster, triathlete and two archers.
I was in Singapore for the 2010 meet with my cumpadre, PDI well-known sports columnist Recah Trinidad and watched some of the events that we love especially the 3×3 men’s basketball matches where our PH squad, composed of Bobby Ray Parks, Jeron Teng, Cris Coloma and Michael Pate, failed to qualify for the quarterfinals even after defeating Central African Republic (23-13), Iran (28-19) and Puerto Rico (34-23) to land 9th out of 16th countries. We saw it how the muscular and tall Serbians humbled their neighbor country Croatia, 22-9, to win the gold. Greece surprisingly defeated U.S., 34-25, to win the bronze.
I like watching the youth games more than the open-age Olympics because the young athletes are the future champs in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics or the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I’ll just have to watch the YOG hostilities this time on TV.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. LUKE 6: 24-26
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