Isa ang Dominican Republic sa tatlong teams na makakaharap ng Gilas PIlipinas sa group stage games ng FIBA World Cup 2023 simula 25 ng Agosto.
Sa pangunguna ni Karl-Anthony Towns, ang seven-foot player ng koponan na siya ring naglalaro para sa Minnesota Timberwolves sa National Basketball Association, maituturing na mabigat na kalaban ang Dominican Republic para sa team ni coach Chot Reyes.
Nagsimula na si Reyes at ang kanyang coaching staff na pag-aralan ang Dominican Republic.
“We’re doing the nitty-gritty of compiling the Dominican Republic profiles, how they like to run on offense, how they like to defend and the same thing with Angola as well,” ang sabi ni Reyes.
Dagdag pa ni Reyes, hidni magiging madali para sa kanila ang lusutan ang Dominican Republic.
“Dominican Republic, they’ve very established players, a couple of NBA players on their roster. Italy released their line up as well, same thing with Angola. Those are very, very strong teams. Hindi ko na iniisip what percentage we are, what grading we are. The whole team is just focusing now on what we need to get done to give us a good chance of pulling off a victory,” bunsad ni Reyes.
Kung tatanungin si Reyes, magiging katawa-tawa lang siya kung sasabihin niya na malaki ang improvement ng kanyang koponan, gayung napakahaba pa ng proseso na dapat pa nilang pagdaanan.
“I’m the worst person to ask and I would say even if we’re practicing for six months, I could tell you that there are a lot of things to work on and that’s just how we were built by nature. I like the effort, I like the intensity, I like the focus, the players, the energy at practices. But we all know how strong the competition is. It’s a matter of putting ourselves in a best possible position to compete,” dagdag pa ni Reyes.
Para naman kay Reyes, ang tatlong tune up games na kanilang nakailnya ang magsisilbing basehan sa pagbuo ng final line up ng kanilang koponan sa p[inakamalaking torneo na bubuksan sa 25 Agosto.
Ito ang unang pagkakataon na maglalaro sina NBA star Jordan Clarkson at Kai Sotto sa bagong grupo na ito.
“It’s the first time we’re going to play with Kai and Jordan in this group and they’ve never played in any of the previous tune up games since we started on 1 June,” said Reyes.
“It’s very, very important for us to get these friendlies so we really worked hard to make sure to get these friendlies because this is the dress rehearsal. All the other teams we played were without these two players. We’ll see.”
Nilabanan ng Gilas ang Ivory Coast kahapon (Biyernes), at haharapin ang Montenegro sa Linggo at Mexico naman sa Lunes.
