CALAMBA. – Coach Josh Reyes of the Gilas Pilipinas Youth squad is convinced his charges could hack it when they see action in the Seaba Under-16 Championship set July 17-19 in Indonesia where they will seek a fifth straight crown.
But the young Filipino cagers still have their work cut out for them.
“In terms of offensive sets, they fairly got it pretty easily, majority of these guys are coming off really, really good programs, they’ve been coached by very good coaches,” Reyes said Thursday during the 18-man national team training pool’s practice at the Inspire Sports Academy here.
“That’s why they are at what they are at. Offensively, offensive skills, it’s there just in terms of having, turning those concepts into a unit, basically we play as a team of course, it’s nothing new, we ran the same things that we ran in Under-18,” he added.
With a new batch of cagers, the pool is bannered by the likes of Kieffer Alas, son of former PBA coach Louie and brother of NLEX star Kevin, Irus Chua, who recently made waves after scoring 121 points in a grassroots league, and Ziv Espinas, son of former pro Gabby.
The regional tilt, to be held for the first time since 2017, will be a qualifier for the FIBA Asia Cup.
The nationals will leave the country on July 16 and will be ranged against Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Reyes said the team just needs some fine-tuning when it comes to their defensive schemes.
“The challenge really is the defensive side kasi iba-iba talaga, some players sanay sila sa press, some players sanay sila puro zone, some players sanay sila gapping, shrinking the floor and just really backline defense,” Reyes said.
“So, what we want to do is something in the middle, we can zone a little bit, we can pressure, that’s where the real work comes in is having a very cohesive defensive system.”
They are not leaving any stone unturned, according to Reyes.
“We need to win (the title) to qualify. It’s hard because of the format, we will only play three games so paano ka magse-second?” Reyes posed. “We don’t know what will happen, so we have to win every game to qualify. The expectation is to win every game.”
