14 SPORTS
VOL. 6 ISSUE 97 • TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2013
EDGEDAVAO
A TWEAK IN TIME
Gilas needs to adjust W
BIG MEN DESERVES MORE TOUCHES. Junmar Fajardo in action against Kazakhstan.
ITH less than four days to go before the FIBA Asia Championship tips off on August 1, PBA coaches see the need for some adjustments on the part of the Philippine national men’s basketball team for the competition. Veteran international campaigner Rajko Toroman, who serves as coaching consultant for Barako Bull, sees the need for Gilas Pilipinas to create more chances for their big men.
“They have yet to establish their inside game. For them to have better chances, Marcus Douthit and Jume Mar Fajardo should be given more touches and more opportunities to score inside,” said Toroman. Neither Douthit nor Fajardo scored in double-figures in Gilas’ 92-89 victory over Kazakhstan in their final tuneup match last Friday. The Philippine team relied heavily on their guards on the offensive end, with Jayson Castro and Jeff Chan scoring 20 points apiece, Larry Fonacier adding 14, and Jimmy Alapag posting 12. For his part, GlobalPort coach Junel Baculi saw the need to tweak the team’s defenses. “In my opinion, we are on the right track,”
wrote Baculi in a text message to InterAKTV. “Just a little adjustment on our defense, specifically on the pick-and-pop plays of our opponents. “More and more big men are improving on their pull up jumpers with range, too.” Kazakhstan’s ace big man Anton Ponomarev burned Gilas from the outside in their tuneup game. The 6-foot-10 forward scored four three-pointers in the first half off pick-andpop opportunities. But the Philippine team was able to make an adjustment in the second half of that match, with Ponomarev scoring just two points after the break with Gilas ace defender Marc Pingris hounding him.
Iran coach: We will win this
I
RAN has won two of the last three FIBA Asia Championship tournaments, and coach Memi Becirovic is not bashful about his team’s chances in the 2013 edition of the competition. “We are going to win the title but five or six other teams want to do that,” the Slovenian coach told the Tehran Times before the team’s departure for Manila on Sunday. Despite his confidence, Becirovic identified several other teams as contenders, including the host nation. “Teams such as South Korea and the Philippines are dangerous as well as China,” he said. Iran won the Asian championship in 2007 and 2009, before falling in a quarterfinals upset in the 2011 staging of the competition. But the powerhouse squad, led by mammoth NBA center Hamed Haddadi and Asian scoring superstar Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, is heading
into the competition with a lot of confidence, especially after winning the William Jones Cup in Taiwan last month. “I believe in my team and without a doubt I am coach of the best Asian team in the competitions. We have won Williams Jones Cup last month and it shows we are on the right track,” said Becirovic. Iran is bracketed in Group C, tabbed by observers as the “Group of Death” with fellow contenders China and South Korea, alongside minnow Malaysia.