Sorry with the lack of frequency in updating this blog, it’s
becoming a yearly thing. But before I forget
let me write about my most recent Gilas experience- Gilas vs the Australian Boomers in Melbourne
for the 3rd window of the Asia Pacific Olympic qualifier. I really enjoyed this experience as for
first time I held no official responsibility and was there purely as a
fan. As such I had no expectation of
having access to the team and the venue.
But I guess once involved will always be part of the family, so true enough when i met the team at their
tournament hotel in Melbourne old friends (Physio Dex, coach Jong , and boss (manager Butch) were
all there to welcome and invite me for breakfast for a catch-up. Was great to meet the old guys again Captain
Gabe, Jason, Japs and Junmar. (all were in NZ and Spain when I was with the
team) of course can’t forget meeting up
with coach Chot and Josh again. One of
the guys who I was looking forward to meet and never met before , even If I played
an instrumental role of bringing him to Gilas
was starting shooting guard Matthew Wright. I finally met him on the bus on the way to
the venue for practice, he just said it’s
finally great to meet you!. It was
really great to be with the team in a city (Melbourne) which is one of my
favourite cities. I spent a couple of
months living in Melbourne about a decade ago.
A number people within the Australia
organizing committee didn’t know what to make of me, as they could see everyone knew me but was
not officially part of the Philippine delegation. I was hoping to just leave the team and
venue for lunch on my own, but they said
, huh how did you enter? I just hopped
on the bus with the team, so basically
the team just told me to get back on , so could get out of the venue .
On the game itself, it was home court for Gilas , 80% of the
crowd were Filipinos, the game was close
in the 1st half with Gilas even taking a 5 point lead. One observation I had was the lack of familiarity and awe factor of playing in the
world stage for Gilas was no longer there.
But you could see the advantage
of overall size and mobility took its toll on Gilas, the shots Gilas were taking were contested
with the Ozy’s length, while our lack of
overall length on the defensive end was starting to get us into foul
trouble. Those advantages on both
offense and defence for the Ozys started to reflect in the odds and % of makes
on both sides of possessions. The Australian basically wore us down, after we started out well.
