Gilas eyes safer route to KO stage

The 27th FIBA- Asia Championships holds the draw among 16 countries vying in the World Cup qualifier today at the Manila Hotel with the Philippines, as host, gaining the right to choose which group to join.

“We have the luxury in this exercise as host. That’s the reason why we exerted much effort to bring the event in our country,” said Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Sonny Barrios.

Be it a “pure” draw or whatever lottery to be used for preliminary-round groupings, Gilas Pilipinas should have a clear path to the knockout round of the Asian joust slated Aug. 1-11 at the MOA Arena in Pasay and at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

For Gilas Pilipinas, as host, will enjoy key privileges, including the right to choose which group to join after 12 teams have been randomly drawn to four separate brackets. Another concession is choosing its opening-day assignment.

Team Philippines gets to know the direction it is going through to the do-or-die matches as FIBAAsia conducts the draw at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel at 1:30 p.m. today.

FIBA-Asia secretary general Hagop Khajirian flew in Tuesday afternoon to preside the proceedings. Also attending the event are SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan, chairman Oscar Moreno, vice chairman Ricky Vargas, and Barrios.

“After spending countless hours and permutations, our scenarios all go out the window as FIBA decides to hold a pure draw, unlike in the past,” said national coach Chot Reyes on his Twitter account.

He didn’t mention, though, that they retain the rights to pick their grouping after the first three rounds of the 16-team draw.

This means powerhouse teams like China, Iran and Jordan may find themselves in one group together, and the Philippines can opt to avoid playing them until the knockout phase.

The pure draw would not work against the host that should choose the easiest path to the quarterfinals featuring eight teams clashing in knockout matches to determine the four teams figuring in the medal play.

ÒEto ang pinagkagastahan natin. The whole world will go through random draw while we’re the only one to enjoy the luxury of choosing where we want to belong,” said Barrios.

“This is the first step to achieve the goal of going to Spain (for the World Cup). And we believe it’s doable, it’s achievable,” the SBP official also said.

“But, of course, there’s science here. You have to make an intelligent choice. You have to make sure to make the knockout stage,” he added.

With the “pure” draw system, it becomes possible for top favorites to play in the same bracket in the first round of eliminations, creating what is often called the Group of Death. After each team plays groupmates once in the preliminaries, the last placer is struck out, leaving 12 survivors who will be reclassified into two groups of six.

Teams will carry over their win-loss records into the second round, except for their records against the eliminated teams, and play only contenders not from their original groups. The top four from each group then move on to play in the eight-team crossover knockout quarterfinals.

In all participations of PBA players in this biennial meet, the Philippines failed to make it past the preliminaries just once in 2007 when it found itself in a Group of Death with eventual champion Iran, Jordan and China.

“The quarterfinal round is the critical part. If you win your quarterfinal match, you have two chances to qualify to the Spain world meet,” said Barrios. “The first is to win your semifinal match. The second is, if you lose your semis, you win the fight for third place.”

Forty-eight hours before the draw, India became the 14th team to qualify to the Asian joust in whipping Afghanistan, 64-46, for the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) title.

Two qualifiers from the Southeast Asian subzone will fill up the 16-team draw. These will be determined in the 10th SEABA Championship set in Medan, Indonesia on June 20-23.

Gilas Pilipinas rewarded the Southeast Asian sub-zone an extra qualifying seat to the FIBA-Asia Championships on the strength of its semifinal finish in the last FIBA-Asia Cup in Tokyo.

Other teams that have qualified to the 2014 FIBA World Cup continental eliminations are China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea from East Asia, Kazakhstan from Central Asia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar from Gulf, and Iran, Jordan and Lebanon from West Asia.