SAMAHANG Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio expressed confidence Gilas Pilipinas will be able to secure a spot in the Fiba Asia Cup once the qualification begins later this year.
The Philippines is bracketed in Group A with Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia with the top two teams in each of the six groups moving to the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup.
“Landing in Group A with Indonesia, Thailand, and Korea gives us a great chance of qualifying for the Fiba Asia Cup 2021 because the top two teams in the group after the home-and-away windows will automatically get spots,” said Panlilio.
“The third-ranked teams of Groups A to F will still have to figure in another set of games to make it to the Final 16,” he added.
The Fiba Asia Cup competition will now feature a qualifier similar to that of the Fiba Basketball World Cup where there will be three windows of home-and-away matches on November 2019, February 2020, and November 2020.
Panlilio said Korea will definitely be the team to beat in the group, but is counting on a repeat of the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship where Gilas beat Korea at the Mall of Asia Arena to secure a spot in the 2014 Fiba World Cup.
“It’s always a challenge taking on Korea and I know this as I was also part of the team that battled them in the Asian Games. We know what they bring to the table but we can’t focus too much on the history between the two teams. One thing I’m very excited about is playing against them on our homecourt because we all know how special the last one turned out to be,” said Panlilio.
Panlilio, however, stressed Thailand and Indonesia, which were beaten by the Philippines in regional competitions, should not be taken lightly.
“Thailand and Indonesia are definitely improving in the past few years. The Thais have even hosted Fiba events in the past because they know it’s also important to learn as much as they can from the stronger teams in the region.
“From 1999 to 2017, it was always either Indonesia or Thailand that challenged the Philippines in the gold medal match of the SEA Games so they’re definitely improving.”
“The most important thing for us is not to take them lightly. We need to play with enough respect for our opponents because they will be preparing for us.”
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