Gilas Pilipinas (3 - 1) def. Qatar (3 - 1) 80 - 70 Japeth sure does like smashing the rim huh. Good thing that backboard is still steady. (credits to interaksyon.com)   As I said in my previous article, I expect Gilas to rise these coming days.   Well rise they did. And they did so, with ruthless aggression. 

Gilas Pilipinas (2 - 1) def. Japan (1 - 2) 90 - 71 Once again, Marcus Douthit dominated the Japanese front line. (credits to interaksyon.com)   I'm pretty sure a lot of you know how Japan is often called, "The Land Of The Rising Sun".   That is what Filipinos wanted Gilas to do. They wanted them to rise.   After all, they came into this game with the memory of a 13 point meltdown against Chinese Taipei still fresh in their minds. Also fresh in their minds is Gary David's recent struggles. Fresh in their minds is the amount of hate they have been mired with after losing against the country they have been rivals with not only in the basketball court, but also in the political stage.   Well, after this game, it was the Philippines that looked like the land of the rising sun. Every bit of it.

Chinese Taipei (3 - 0) def. Gilas Pilipinas (2 - 1) 84 - 79 Tseng Wen Ting gave Mick Pennisi a run for his money for best actor in this game. Kidding. (credits to interaksyon.com)   This was the very first FULL game of Gilas which I could watch, since I've been busy with school work these past few days. Well, malas nga naman.   This was supposed to be a revenge game of sorts for Gilas Pilipinas. They wanted justice for the OFWs being abused in Taiwan. They wanted revenge for their exclusion in the Jones Cup. It wasn't only the team who wanted it; the WHOLE NATION wanted it. I honestly wanted it.   Sadly we couldn't get it.

  Well, the title of this post practically sums up what this article will be about. Is Gilas peaking too early before the actual FIBA Asia tournament?   You guys may ask, what made me ask this question that Gilas may be peaking too early? Well, let's go back to a certain statement Coach Chot made days before the much anticipated Lithuanian trip. "We expect to get massacred."   To be honest, I WANTED Gilas to get massacred. I was actually EXCITED to see Gilas get massacred. Why? The true character of Gilas would show in these massacres. We would see if Gilas could rise and persevere amidst disaster.   Well, their trip is about to conclude, and Gilas hasn't gotten massacred. FAR FROM IT.   Gilas is 5 - 1 thus far in their Lithuanian trip. They beat 4th placers of the recently concluded Lithuanian Basketball League Klaipedos Neptunas 81 - 76 albeit the absence of their two American imports. For the next game, they would rally against Birstono Jazz Diremta...

  As of this writing, Gilas has just arrived at Palanga, Lithuania, the site of their training camp for the next two weeks. Coach Chot dubs it as the beginning of the "61 Day Trip to History". 61 days to the FIBA Asia Championships this August.   Before we list down the things we should watch out for in this trip, let's list down the schedule of activities for the Philippine national team.   Today, June 4, Gilas will start their training camp in the confines of the Svyturio Arena in Klaipeda. Their training will consist of two sessions daily; first, during the morning, they will have their conditioning exercises. Come evening, they will have their basketball scrimmages. They will be having a game every two days. On June 5, they will be up against Klaipedos Neptunas squad which recently finished at third place in the Lithuanian Basketball League. On June 7 and 15 (the eve of their departure), they will be against the Kaunas LSU - Baltai squad. On June 9, they will face...

   2 months.   That's all there is left for the training of our Gilas Pilipinas national team. And, it has been bumpy. INCREDIBLY bumpy at that.    The first setback is the much publicized  exclusion of the Philippines  for the upcoming Jones Cup. The tournament would've been integral to the preparations of the national team for the FIBA Asia tournament, but now, they will have to find a way to find or create a tournament to prepare them come August. Some help from  coach Rajko  perhaps?    The second setback is actually a series of setbacks, but we can actually describe it into just one. The loss of players in the pool. It all started when the blood disorder of a certain machine gun in the pool triggered, and when a certain daredevil  got into a car accident . Then, the top perimeter defender of the pool got  injured , and that lessens his chances to get into the 12 man team. Then again, a certain beast who has long...

    Now that the PBA Commissioner's Cup, the nation can finally unite into one. No longer will the members of the  Gatas Republik feud with the Barangay. The  Petroniverse will no longer have to completely worry about the scrutiny that they will receive from the other fan bases. Now, we unite to form the ultimate fan base, and that's the Filipino nation . All of us. Fil - Am, Cebuano, Kapampangan or even Bicolano. As long as you are a Filipino, you are part of one nation, the Filipino nation . Now, what is the team that we are to support?    The Gilas Pilipinas national team. Para sa bayan.    Our Gilas pool originally consisted of 17 players, but now it is down to 15 players because of the illnesses past Gilas standouts Jared Dillinger and Kelly Williams received. This proved to be a huge loss for our line up, since the two were expected to be shoo ins in the final 12. This opened up a hole in our 3 spot (You can read more on this issue ...

    Nadamay pa ang basketball.     That's probably the message echoing in the heads of many Filipino hoop fans right now. Why did basketball have to be affected by the rift between the Philippines and Taiwan? I honestly have no idea why. If anyone can actually answer that question for (in such a way that is not biased), please do so.    Now, if you guys have been under a rock lately, or if you haven't paid much attention to the headlines, the Philippines and Taiwan are in quite a rift right now. As to why, you can read that right  here .   I won't go into full detail regarding the national issue between the two countries, since I made this post to talk about the issue concerning basketball about the two countries. But, to further understand the basketball side of things, I'll explain how the Taiwanese are feeling towards the Filipinos in a national perspective a bit more. Just a bit.

       It was around Saturday afternoon when I heard reports of Jared Dillinger being involved in some car accident. I was sad to hear of the incident. Not because I knew that losing Jared would mean that the Tropang Texters would have to dig even deeper into their line up to find a way to beat the resurgent Barangay. In fact, I'm not even a fan of the Tropang Texters (I'm for Alaska and Petron hehe).        I was sad, of course because a fellow human being got into a sudden accident. An accident that could have been avoided. But other than that, I was sad because that meant a blow to the hopes of Gilas Pilipinas to go to the FIBA World Championships in Spain this 2014. Gilas Pilipinas will miss the Daredevil's services this August for the FIBA Asia Championships. (credits to sports.inquirer.net)