In the recent FIBA U16 SEABA Qualifiers, the Gilas Pilipinas Youth team was able to sweep the tournament in order to capture the gold.
But if we set aside the lopsided wins, it made me wonder how did they do it “in a basketball standpoint”
Princeton Offense > Triangle Offense
In my hunt to gather knowledge, I stumbled upon a YouTube video of Sir Ize Flores explaining that in the 1st game of Batang Gilas against Vietnam, they ran an offense called “The Princeton”.
This was a surprise considering in earlier reports, Head Coach LA Tenorio had said that he wanted to incorporate the famous “Triangle Offense” that Head Coach Tim Cone is using in the Gilas Seniors team.
In the video, it was greatly emphasized that the team was either using the Princeton Point or the Prince Chin plays for their offense.
In the game against Indonesia during the elimination stage, both teams had a similar record of 3-0. In the late 3rd quarter, Indonesia was able to cut the big lead of Gilas to just 4 points.
Sir Ize Flores made another video detailing that Gilas went to use Prince Chin offense majority of the time but against Indonesia, they attacked the gaps of the Zone Defense displayed by their opponent.
What’s interesting here is that when he said “attacked the gaps” its not just passing the ball or dribbling towards to the paint, it’s more on finding the open areas of the zone defense wherein the players can pass and catch the ball as well as move near the perimeter or at the three point shot in order to get an open look.
Gilas went on to win these games, against Vietnam 113-62 and against Indonesia 77-68.
Numbers on the Board
In the game against Vietnam, the Philippines won in almost every statistical area. Assists, rebounds, steals, free-throw, bench scoring and fast break points.
Statistically speaking, this was the perfect game for them. A 51 point blowout win.
Versus Thailand for their 2nd game, the Batang Gilas showed how good they were when they only allowed 1 point at the end of the 1st quarter while they scored 31 big points. Then for the rest of the game they never looked back.
They dominated the field goal shooting 37/92 (40%) – 12/75 (16%), rebounding 77-52, assists 29-9, steals 13-6, blocks 7-1, bench points 49- 25 and even in fast break points 33-1.
But hey at least Thailand was a better free throw shooting team than us, 12-21 (57%) compared to 8-24 (33%). Yet they still lost, 87-42.
Their 3rd game against Singapore was almost similar to the one they had against Vietnam. They have shown no mercy and annihilated their opponents. They had a better field goal shooting 44/93 (47%) – 10/52 (19%), boards 70-29, dimes 30-4, steals 14-5, blocks 9-1, bench points 54-27 and in fast break points 36 to nothing.
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in the 3 games of Gilas it’s that they may have dominated every area of the ball game but their three point makes compared to their opponents are actually really close.
In Vietnam, both teams made four shots behind the arc with the Philippines being 4/14 and the Vietnamese being 4/17. In the match versus Thailand, Gilas shot 5/22 while compared to 6/29. Then in Singapore, the Philippines were 6/21 against the 3/20.
They may be winning games by a million points but one huge area of improvement that Assistant Coach Richard Del Rosario may want to focus on is their outside shooting.
The one true game where Gilas was challenged was against Indonesia. The Youth team may have won the FG% but only by an inch as they were 33/83 against 27/70. The Indonesians actually won the steals 13-7, points off turnovers 15-12, fast break points 20-15 and three point conversions 5/20 (25%)-4/21(19%).
Luckily, LA Tenorio assembled a tall group and they won the rebounding department 59-35 and with the offense they used, they were able to outassist the Indonesians 24-14 to get the 77-68 victory.
In the win of Gilas against Malaysia, they actually lost in that department having to only convert 4/10 (40%) against the 9/30 (30%) of the Malaysians. They also lost the blocks 4-3. But just like the previous game, the Philippines won the other remaining categories.
The rebounds 56-28, field goal disparity 43/85 (50%) – 25/61 (40%), assists 27-15, steals 15-6, bench production 58-19 and both fast break as well as the second chance points 25-9.
In the gold medal match against Indonesia, despite the U16 Youth Team of the Philippines winning the game 70-40, there were some areas where the Indonesians actually won.
Won the free throw makes 9/10 (90%) – 7/11 (63%), steals 10-7, blocks 8-4 and in fast break points 17-13.
But of course, the home team also displayed a decent performance winning the bench points 31-19, second chance points 15-4, rebounds 64-38 and the field goal makes 28/73 (38%) – 14/69 (20%).
Next Goal: Dominate the FIBA U16 Asia Cup
It was a mission accomplished for LA along with the rest of the team to win this tournament in his head coaching debut.
In an interview with Matthew Li of Tiebreaker Times, Head Coach LA said “Siyempre, masayang-masaya na we got this gold medal but more than me, it’s really the boys. Sobrang masaya ako para sa kanila,.”
“I’m just here to guide them at turuan sila, pero sila ang maglalaro at mag-iimprove everyday. I’m just happy na lahat ng pinapagawa ng coaching staff, nagagawa nila.” he added. “I’m proud of the boys dahil marami silang sakripisyo dahil sa school schedule. At the end of the day, nandito pa rin sila,”.
Now they are now focused on replicating this type of performance when they participate in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, set to be played later this year.
