RP Team: Playing Posum?

What transpired over the week seemed to be a shock for the local avid filipino basketball fan. Powerade Team Pilipinas, though not expected to show all and keep intent on winning games in the William Jones cup. We expected to lose games, but not get smacked by Jordan in the opening round or have our 19 point lead vanish at the hands of Japan. Negativity and criticism are rising in local and international hoop forums. But there are signs and flashes of brilliance that make us wonder if the RP Team is really playing possum or not....



There are most times where the team use individual one on one plays and turnovers galore. Basking in dissapointment everytime the opposing team clobbers us by a 10 point lead or so a few minutes within the start of a game, yet we shout and cheer valiantly as the team climbs back to let the enemies' lead wither or even tie the score, using set plays and offensive schemes only to revert back to the NBA style and lose at the end by a few points. Questions like, "why didnt they call a timeout?" or "why didnt they revert to the set plays" boggle out mind. As if in the back of our heads, we are thinking that the team isnt really taking this seriously.

The team who does well in the jones cup does not really guarantee that they'll win big on the suceeding touranments that they will enter. Such an example is the 2007 version wherein Jordan won the jones cup but ended up as only the 5th place in Fiba Asia in tokushima. Kazakhstan, a team which placed way below and 2nd to the last, ended up a notch higher in fiba at 4th place and even made it to the wild card olympic qualifying round. Another example is the 1998 centennial team wherein they won the Jones cup but got smacked by the US College teams, Korea and China in tune to the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

Right now we are seeing a mystery, Are we seeing a team which continues to hold back? A team which is really on a loss and has no chance to win in the grand stage? A team which has lost lots of precious preparation time due to the professional league and the commissioner's vision? Or a team that is just playing possum?

In 2 weeks time we will know.