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JAKARTA, Indonesia: Mikee Romero is not one to back
down from any challenge, that’s why this early he already has the
seeds of a plan to tackle another—this one more daunting—task.
Shortly after his Team Harbour
Centre-Philippines claimed the Seaba Club Champions Cup here Romero
is already training his sights on a far loftier goal, that of
forming and whipping up another squad for the SEA Games in December.
“This early, we must start
laying down the groundwork for the SEA Games,” said Romero. “I
believe we have all the tools needed to win that gold, the one that
is closest to the Filipinos’ hearts.”
The BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng
Pilipinas has tasked Romero with financing an all-amateur team for
the SEAG in Thailand and the fact most of his victorious team’s
members here, standouts from several PBL ball clubs, are graduating
to the pros by August is not lost on the youthful Harbour team
owner.
Add the fact the Philippines’
traditional opponents like Thailand and Malaysia will be shooting to
dislodge the Filipinos, who won the gold the last time basketball
was included in the SEAG calendar in 2003.
Still, Romero is not fazed, much
like the way he determinedly whipped up a bunch of first-timers in
the international arena to become champions and herald the
country’s return to preeminence in the region following a two-year
suspension by the FIBA.
“There are still plenty of
materials out there in the amateurs,” he maintains. “What we
need to do is to dig them up, hone them and prime them up into a
potent force.”
Besides, he added, a grand design
has already taken place, starting with a solid anchor.
“We can have coach Junel [Baculi]
handle the team. He has the experience and background to prop him as
the most likely choice,” he noted.
The BAP-SBP has the final
decision on who will be the SEA Games team coach who will make up
the coaching staff, which will then all make the final choice on the
players.
Based on Harbour-RP’s
resounding triumph here—that comes after Romero’s Port Masters
claimed back-to-back PBL titles, prompting the SBP to decide his
players will form the core of the Nationals here—there remains
little doubt his recommendation will be snubbed.
The Seaba Club championship was
the first overseas title for the country since the 2003 SEAG in
Vietnam and came two months after the FIBA lifted its suspension
meted on the country in September 2005.
If there ever was any rust, it
never showed.
The Nationals capped their
domination of the four-team, five-day tournament here with an 85-67
manhandling of host SM Britama-Indonesia in the one-game final
Saturday night at the Britama Arena.
In all, the Filipinos wound up
with a 3-1 win-loss slate, their only loss a 75-79 decision to the
hosts last Wednesday. In-between, they beat Petronas-Malaysia 87-72
and Vietnam 158-36.
There are other gains far more
valuable than merely earning a slot for the country in the FIBA-Asian
Champions Cup set in Tehran, Iran in May 12 to 20.
The Indonesian and Malaysian
teams have eight players here who are members of their respective
national teams and getting a glimpse of those systems can prove
invaluable in determining the kind of RP team that will be formed.
Romero and Baculi agree on one
major factor.
“We must have the agile, mobile big men because Indonesia and
Malaysia have them and we know Thailand is sure to have them too,”
they chorused.
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