I rushed to the Ninoy Aquino Stadium tonight after a long day of work in the field just in time for the tipoff of Smart Gilas versus the Jordan national team. Gilas actually played well in the first half, taking a first quarter lead and keeping in step with the taller Jordanians at halftime.

But Jordan, the bronze medal winner at last year’s Fiba-Asia championship, stepped up its attack in the third quarter, taking a 58-50 lead at the end of the period. They turned the game into a laugher in the fourth quarter, using a 15-4 run to take a 19-point lead before Gilas rallied to make the score respectable, 83-75.

Like most of the other fans in the stadium, I ended up drenched after the game, adding insult to injury. It always sucks to watch a team with the words “Pilipinas” across the chest losing.

Some thoughts on the game:

• Marcus Douthit twisted his ankle in the second quarter, which could have affected his performance, even after he returned later. But my first impression is that he’s solid, but not as talented or explosive as CJ Giles.


• Gilas’ best five was its small-ball lineup with Jayvee Casio, Chris Tiu, Marcio Lassiter, Mac Baracael, and Greg Slaughter after Douthit went down. Lassiter, Baracael, and Casio hit several three-pointers to keep Gilas in the game.


• Slaughter was especially impressive. He wasn’t exactly smooth, but he played solid man-to-man and help defense, and ran the floor well. He even had a two-handed follow-up dunk on the break.


• On the flip side, I’m worried about the rest of the guys in the rotation. Chris Lutz looks like he hasn’t adjusted to the system yet, while Mark Barroca, Dylan Ababou, and Japeth Aguilar looked very tentative, like they were worried about being yanked from the game by Coach Rajko Toroman if they missed a shot or were late on a defensive rotation. It’s like they’re constantly looking over their shoulder to see if someone’s going to the scorer’s table to check in for them.


• Actually, Aguilar deserves his own bullet point. His confidence is just completely shattered, and Toroman looks like he’s much, much, much more comfortable having the 6’3” Baracael out there at power forward instead of the 6’10” Aguilar. With seconds to go before the end of the third quarter, Toroman took out Aguilar, and the coach started screaming at the player’s face, ignoring the rest of the action until the buzzer sounded. Japeth didn’t even look like he was listening anymore, just walking to the very end of the bench. He never returned, as Toroman went with the twin tower combination of Douthit and Slaughter.
  
  The Gilas management might want to consider shipping Aguilar out of the team, perhaps to Talk N Text as replacement for Kelly Williams. Maybe, with nurturing from Chot Reyes and Norman Black, Aguilar’s confidence can be nursed back to health and his immense potential could still be salvaged.


• Gilas needs to improve its zone offense; Jordan went on its big run by playing a 2-3 zone.


• If Williams and Ryan Reyes end up joining Smart Gilas, they’d be taking the minutes of Aguilar and Barroca, ironically the two guys we all thought would be carrying the team last year.


• Near the end of the game, Gilas got a steal and passed ahead to Jayvee Casio, who muffed a fastbreak floater in the lane against Rasheim Wright. Toroman got in his face and started screaming about Casio’s miss, gesturing wildly for a while about how Casio should have done it.
  
  There are two ways to look at this sequence. One is that Coach Rajko, ever the perfectionist, expects only the very best from his players. The other is that, well, that was a tough shot for Casio, and Toroman was being kind of a dick.


• If Jordan beats the Dongguan Leopards tomorrow, which they should, Gilas would have another shot at Jordan on Sunday.

After running roughshod over not-too-elite competition in Australia and getting their asses handed to them by excellent professional teams in Serbia, Smart Gilas took its act to the United States to play several minor league teams from the American Basketball Association. A couple of days ago, Gilas began its campaign by going up against the ABA team based in San Diego (which of course in German means whale’s vagina). It was an exciting match, with birthday boy Mark Barroca sinking a three-point shot with 4.3 seconds left to lead the Filipinos to a 94-93 victory.

But what really caught my eye from this game report by Joey Villar at the Philippine Star was this last line: “If plans don’t miscarry, Smart Gilas will be the second foreign squad to be included in next year’s ABA season as an adopted team by Daly City, next to China’s Beijing Aoshen, headed by former LA Lakers’ guard Sun Yue.”

This would be a good thing, if this were the ABA of Julius Erving and Connie Hawkins, but it’s not. Not even close. It’s like comparing the handsomeness of Chris Tiu to Barroca. It’s laughable.

There are actually several minor leagues in the United States apart from the NBA D-League, such as the Premiere Basketball League (PBL), where current Talk N Text import Shawn Daniels played before his latest PBA stint, and the International Basketball League (IBL), which is home to the likes of former Red Bull import Adam Parada.

So just how bad is the ABA? Scott Schroeder of the excellent D-League blog Ridiculous Upside wrote about the league last year, while discussing Sun Yue and Beijing Aoshen:

The Aoshen, AKA Aoshen Olympian, play in the ABA, which, in its current state, is not exactly a good league. Ever heard of the PBL? It's way below that. IBL? Probably even a bit below that. The ABA is disgusting.

Strong words. But hey, at least Aoshen got to play in the ABA and Sun Yue was drafted by the Lakers, right? But as Schroeder points out in his piece, Sun sucked balls: “In four games in the D-League, the Chinese Magic Johnson didn't impress. Honestly, I'm shocked that he was drafted by the Lakers, as in the three games I saw him play, it looked he belonged back in the ABA with his Chinese traveling team, the Beijing Aoshen.” There are whispers that the only reason he got on the Lakers was because of his marketing value as a Chinese national.

But the terrible state of the league isn’t just because of the inferior talent level, but because of how poorly-run the league is, with teams pulling in and out of the league during the season. From 2001 to 2008, “over 170 teams have folded disbanded, or fallen into a state of disrepair.” The league is a joke, and it is actually being used by sports editors in US cities for comic relief:

In doing this story there were some interesting tales that were uncovered and one of the best is about coach came into New Jersey with only four players so he asked where the local YMCA was and 'recruited three or four players' for that one night.

A Rochester executive (Rochester, like Halifax quit the A.B.A. last year just before the playoffs) told me that one team had six players and a '13th man'. That is a home town person who may get into a game towards the very end of the contest.

"But in this case the 13th man was used almost as a regular since they simply didn't have any players. It was pathetic," the executive told TSN.ca

The ever-changing lineup of teams has taken its toll on the league, and the mental health of the people involved in it, according to OurSports Central:

Though every team is supposed to play a 36-game slate, the league has played less than half its scheduled games to this point, and more than 100 additional games will be cancelled because of the teams that are no longer playing. Other teams have cancelled games without explanation. Additionally, several dozen more contests were never scheduled, and teams have resorted to playing semi-pro or amateur teams to fill their home dates. The Atlanta Vision for instance, has played just three ABA games and have only 12 more scheduled against league opposition.

In an email sent to [ABA CEO Joe] Newman and the ABA office, Texas Tycoons General Manager Mike Senters expressed his frustration with the constantly eroding schedule. "What are we actually selling to the public? Fast paced, fan friendly, affordable, cancellations?" he asked, while noting he wanted the league to improve.

Aoshen joined the ABA in 2005, playing its home games in California (while driving former Suns forward Paul Shirley, who had a short stint with the team, damn near crazy). In 2007, the team decided to move its home games to Singapore, flying their opposition halfway around the world. The accommodations were less than ideal:

Houston Takers owner Larry Leonard blamed the mildew-ridden hotel in which his team stayed after several of his players became ill. Others cited a different distraction.

“Our hotel was small and cramped,” said Maywood (Cal.) Buzz General Manager Burrell Lee. “There were hookers everywhere, knocking on our door in the hotel.”

Perhaps this note on OurSports Central about the ABA says it best about the prospects of the league: “OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams.”

Funnily enough, last December 2009, the ABA announced an ambitious $200-million global expansion program led by Paul Monozca, a Filipino based in Singapore who calls himself a “sports philantrophist.” It is through Monozca’s roots that Smart Gilas is now playing in the ABA. At the start of the Gilas trip, he announced, “The Smart-Gilas team's debut in the ABA is a historic one. The country has been dreaming of playing pro basketball in the United States, same as teams from all over the world. Today, the dream has become a reality. ABA Global is here.”

After everything you just read about the ABA, would you still believe this man?

Like I said a few posts back, I welcome any insight about the Smart Gilas squad, given that a lot of people really care about the promising team. A Smart Gilas insider (I know who he is, but for obvious reasons couldn’t disclose the identity) left a very interesting comment on my last post about the team. I’m republishing the most interesting parts of his comment here for more people to see:

Mac Baracael has been playing at the four position most of the time and he has been way more effective there when compared to Japeth. Japeth hasn't been rebounding too well and has been making good decisions. Plus he has not been playing good defense.

As for the PBA players, no coach Raijko is not interested in Asi at all. He was simply using him as a measure for the size that he needs. the only PBA player that he really wants (which i think finally came out publicly today) is kelly williams because he would be a perfect fit for the 4 position because of his rebounding and shooting.

As for the guards, Toroman is completely happy with all of them and he is just waiting for Lutz to come then his lineup for guards will be complete. I know a lot of people dont like Tiu, but when he averages the most minutes on the team, that says alot for a guy who is so short. Watching their games, it would seem that it is his fault when the guards score but truth is, he does everything coach Raijko asks him to on defense. he follows their defensive philosophy to the letter and often enough it is due to his teammates' mistakes in following their help side rules on defense that lead his man to score. He is just the leader of the team and sticks his team together. A true role player indeed.

Baracael has been great and Jvee Casio has been very good too. Barroca is actually not playing so well anymore and is getting berated at times for not passing the ball and setting the plays up properly.

Like I said in the previous post, I hadn’t seen enough of Smart Gilas in Dubai, so these are more general thoughts. That said, I was thoroughly impressed with the team’s performance, and like any other Pinoy basketball fan, I am hopeful that this is the start of the team’s steady climb.

Anyway, some of my thoughts, in bullets:

• Rajko Toroman is preparing his team to defend against bigger teams, and so far it’s working. It shouldn’t come as a surprise though, because the team did well too against bigger teams in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup last year even when CJ Giles went down. Does anyone else find it funny that the strategy works for 6’11” American imports but not for 6’3” PBA forwards? Good thing Gilas won’t have to play against Richard Yee or Chad Alonzo in the Asian Games.


• Mac Baracael was the breakout star for Gilas in the tournament, especially in the last few games. I’m curious to know, from those who’ve been watching, what position he has been playing. Back in the Champions Cup, he saw a lot of action as an undersized power forward and stepped up big-time. Interestingly, Toroman’s wish list before the Dubai tournament if he had a choice of PBA players consisted of Kelly Williams, Gabe Norwood, Jared Dillinger, and Arwind Santos, all of whom play Baracael’s small forward position. I wonder if the list still looks like that today, or if he plans to go small-ball with a wingman playing the four-spot.


• Curiously, Toroman has name-dropped Asi Taulava in interviews after the Dubai tournament as someone who could fill in the team’s needs. Interesting.


• Chris Tiu has been quite a surprise. He’s really, actually good. He’s bulked up, and he’s surprisingly athletic—although PBA 2-guards still gave him a lot of trouble. It’s not as much of a problem against Middle Eastern club teams, who probably don’t run as many isolations and pick-and-rolls for their shooting guards. He gets a lot of cheap points in the Gilas half-court set, not just off jumpers, but backdoor cuts, screen-and-rolls, etc. He’s not a superstar, but he’s mind-numbingly solid. He’s just so steady, which was probably why he kept playing well in the PBA even as the rest of his teammates were struggling. I apologize to Tiu for calling him the next Alfie Almario.
  
  (This was actually originally part of an email exchange with Rafe Bartholomew, who suggested the title: “Giving credit where credit is Tiu.” Rafe’s book on Philippine basketball, “Pacific Rims” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.)


• Is Jayvee Casio the Franz Pumaren to Mark Barroca’s Hector Calma? And is this girl the Christine Jacob in this analogy? Does that make JR Cawaling the Elmer Reyes of this team? One thing I’m sure of: Magi Sison is definitely not the next Yves Dignadice.


• As Bill Simmons would say, the turd in the punch bowl is definitely Jamal Sampson, who has reportedly been kicked off the team. I thought it would be funny to go back and read Quinito Henson’s series of stories building up Sampson’s credentials before joining Gilas. And you know what? They’re fucking HILARIOUS.