10 MONTHS IN 10 DAYS: CRAMMING IN TAIWAN

TAIPEI – For Powerade Team Pilipinas, the 31st Williams Jones Cup tournament represents a crash course on team bonding and preparation, a burning the midnight oil hour.

While teams like Lebanon and Iran are using the nine-team competition – held here annually in honor of the founding secretary-general of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) – to break in newly-acquired big men or wrap up year-long training, the Philippines is cramming inside 10 days 10 months worth of lessons.

“Without prolonged preparation, we’re trying to compress all the situations na puwede nating daanan sa Tianjin in this one tournament,” said national coach Yeng Guiao moments after the RP team blew a 19-point second quarter lead in losing to Japan Tuesday.

“We learn more from seeing the situation here,” Guiao added.

Other than a low level Southeast Asian Basketball Men’s Championship in Medan, Indonesia two months ago, the Nationals, tasked with securing a berth to the 2010 World Championship in Istanbul by finishing in the top three in next month’s 25th FIBA Asia Men’s Championship in China, have had absolutely no international experience.

They did play an overmatched team from Australia, two PBA selections and a group of American missionaries, but nothing beats getting slap around by Jordan, sneered at by host Chinese-Taipei, and having their hopes dashed by Japan.

Beating Kazakhstan, a team the country hasn’t had success with since Tim Cone’s RP-Centennial team back in 1998, lifted their spirits and Guiao believes the contrasting experience is nothing but enriching.

“In order to play a team better, one has to lose to them first in order to realize what needs to be done,” the fiery mentor rationalized.

“Situations like these give one the opportunity to see the character of the players -- kung sino ang puwede at di puwede.”

Guiao has said before that the Jones Cup is the “real test” and the FIBA Asia the “real thing” – and no test is preparing Team RP than wading in the waters of Taiwan with the best of Asia outside powerhouse China.

Lebanon, South Korea, Taiwan-B and Iran remain in the Nationals’ schedule and more tutorials abound in these games.

How to handle the veteran Fadi El-Khatib and naturalized player Jackson Vroman will be provided by the Lebanese national squad.

With the legendary Shin Dong Pa a fixture at the sideline, the South Korean snipers will be looking to pick off the Nationals from every spot in the Hsinchuang gym.

And then there are the Iranians, formerly coached by Serbian Rajko Toroman, now with the Philippines’ developmental team.

Not only did they top the 24th FIBA Asia Men’s Championship in Tokushima in 2007 and go on to the Beijing Olympics the following year, they brought with them 7-foot-2 behemoth Hamed Ehadadi, who arrived Tuesday, to terrorize their remaining opponents in the Jones Cup and send a chilly message to their rivals in Tianjin.

The Philippines is bracketed with Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka in Group A in the FIBA Asia, with the top three teams moving up to the next round against the top three squads from Group B, comprised of Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Iran and Taiwan.

Getting past the first round should be a breeze, unless Sri Lanka, a cricket-playing nation, knows hoops as much as bats and wedges.

It is in the next round when the Uzbeks, Iranians and Taiwanese (unless the Kuwaitis have a say about it) come along that the lessons of Jones Cup 101 need to be applied.

As of now, the Nationals have four more classes to go.

Up next: Lebanese history. Professor El-Khatib awaits.