JONG Uichico has seen generations of Korean teams in his many years with the national team, both as coach and player.
But the team that Gilas faced in the Clark bubble was nothing like the Korean teams Uichico had seen before.
“We were coming in blind talaga. Same thing as theirs. Ang alam lang namin, ‘yung scouting reports kasi may liga naman sila. Alam namin ang tendencies nung mga Korean players," Uichico admitted of the new-look Korean side.
The Gilas Pilipinas assistant coach observed that this Korea team in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers played a starkly different system and an unfamiliar style than the previous squads he had gone against the past decades.
Uichico described the Koreans' new system as something of a hybrid, still showcasing the hallmarks of the nation's game like pinpoint passing and red-hot shooting but now featuring a lot more offensive options.
“There are standards like ball movement, pero ngayon, may one-on-one, may slasher na sila, nagha-hybrid na eh,” said Uichico during a cameo appearance in the last episode of the SPIN POV.
Uichico knows what he is talking about. In 2002 Asian Games in Busan, Uichico was the coach of the Philippine team that lost to Korea in the semifinals on a buzzer-beating three-pointer off a broken play by Lee Sang Min.
On Wednesday, it was Gilas’ turn to break Korean hearts when SJ Belangel banked in a three at the buzzer to give the Philippines an 81-78 victory against a Korean team coached by Cho Sang Hyun - a member of that 2002 Asiad squad.
'What's Korea up to?'
Uichico can only guess what new head coach Cho is up to.
"'Yung coach, because this is the first time that he had coached, hindi namin alam ang istilo niya. Nanghuhula lang kami na kung sino ba ang coaches na possible influence sa kanya," said Uichico.
“One is Hur Jae and then one is ‘yung pagkatapos ni Hur Jae. ‘Yun ang influence niya probably. Pero up to now, we cannot say for sure what his system is kasi parang, yes typical Korean na three-points pero hindi typical coaching philosophy ng Koreano,” said Uichico.
What they are sure is that Korean system, at least for this team, does a lot of things aside from shooting well.
“May slasher na sila, may penetrator, may hustle defender na rin sila which is not typical of Korea. Physical, yes, pero bihira sa kanila ‘yung penetrator to lay-up. Penetrator to kick, meron pero ngayon, may penetrator to lay-up na talaga.”
This Korean team even has a defense specialist, Uichico said.
“Dati, wala naman silang player na gagawin lang dumepensa. Pero may player na sila na taga-pressure lang ng point guard. Of course, they can all shoot the three pero may preference na silang gawin other than shoot the three. Hindi kagaya noon na ang preference talaga nila is shoot the three," the former SMB and Ginebra coach said.
Even the presence of naturalized player Ricardo Ratliffe has given Korea's game a different dimension, he added.
“Dati, wala silang post game pero ngayon, puro poste na sila kay Ratliffe,” said Uichico.
Since the opening loss, Korea won games against Indonesia and Thailand in lopsided fashion. But the Koreans once again lost to Gilas on Sunday afternoon, 82-77, while playing much like they did the first time.
Uichico, however, said it is still too early to say for sure whether Korea will stick to this style of play. Will this be the Korean team of the future?
That we have to see.
“They’re becoming a hybrid of Korea," said Uichico smiling. "But we don’t know if it’s going to be a future trend."
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