Gilas Pilipinas Basketball

Gilas Pilipinas men head coach Yeng Guiao said the team is preparing extra hard for Italy in the upcoming 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China, as it could be the “most important game” for the nationals.

The Philippines will square off with the European side on August 31 to open their Group D phase, and Guiao said the squad is extremely focused on scouting Italy and preparing because of the huge repercussions the game may have for the entire group.

“We are really focus on scouting the Italians first. Naka-tunnel vision kami kasi we feel that is going to be our most important game,” Guiao said.

Italy, the no. 13-ranked team in the world, are bannered by NBA players Danilo Gallinari and Marco Belinelli, and EuroLeague star Luigi Datome.

Guiao added Gilas had already sent scouts to examine both Italy and Serbia as early as a month ago.

“All our resources in terms of scouting and time has been focused on that. We are going to face a stronger team but more or less, we’re just going to reinforce (the scouting),” Guiao said.

Serbia defeated Italy twice in preparation games, including one in the Acropolis Tournament in Greece.

Guiao is banking on the lack of scouting by opposing teams, as Gilas had closed door games against the Adelaide 36ers over the weekend.

The mentor added teams have not yet seen how Gilas seeks to play in the international meet.

“Ang makikita lang nila kung makikita nila yung films natin, yung sa Spain (training camp), tsaka some from the windows,” he said. “But other than that, I don’t think they are going to see how we are playing in the closed door games. I hope it’s an advantage. We haven’t been as scouted as we have scouted them.”

Gilas’ 12-man roster includes five veterans from the 2014 Worlds in Andray Blatche, Gabe Norwood, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, and Paul Lee.

The rest of the line-up is composed of Troy Rosario, Raymond Almazan, RR Pogoy, CJ Perez, Robert Bolick, Mark Barroca, and Kiefer Ravena.

The NLEX Road Warriors head coach also mentioned Gilas is in the final stages of their build-up, which includes only fine-tuning and being mentally prepared for their game plan.

“Right now, we are just going on with our finishing touches, slight adjustments. Basically, it is just watching film and video and trying to put together the last adjustments of the game plan,” he said.

“We are hoping we are ready. We have done our best to be as ready as we can be.”

Gilas will not take a break with practices scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to China Thursday morning.

By Levi Verora, Jr.