Ranidel de Ocampo wants Gilas Pilipinas to enjoy the opportunity of playing against the best players in the world when the country hosts the FIBA Basketball World Cup from 25 August to 12 September.
De Ocampo said seeing action in the prestigious 32-nation tournament is a once in a lifetime opportunity so the current Gilas players should work hard and give it their all.
“Let’s not waste the opportunity of playing against the best teams in the world,” De Ocampo said in the latest Down to the Wire episode, the weekly sports show of Daily Tribune.
“One thing you don’t want to have is regret of not giving your best and you lost by a close margin.”
Now 41, the 6-foot-6 de Ocampo knows what he is talking about.
He was part of the Gilas squad that made a breakthrough by advancing to the World Championships for the first time in nearly four decades in 2014 in Seville, Spain.
De Ocampo and the Gilas squad made an impressive run as they pushed their rivals from Croatia, Argentina and Puerto Rico to the limit in the preliminaries while beating the taller, heftier and stronger Senegal squad in the classification phase.
“Luis Scola of Argentina was one of those good NBA players that I was able to play against in the World Cup. They were No. 2 or No. 3 at that time, if I’m not mistaken,” De Ocampo said.
“We also played JJ Barea, the star player of Puerto Rico and then of course, Bojan Bogdanovic of Croatia.”
“We nearly beat Croatia. There were fouls that were not called against us, maybe because we’re not known in the international circuit, so the referees are still not familiar with us. We’re being bumped a lot, especially when we were taking those three-point shots and we’re fortunate to make them, so there should be potential four-point play opportunities there. We lost to Croatia in overtime.”
The Philippines narrowly lost to Croatia in overtime, 78-81, dropped a four-point loss to Argentina, 81-85, and also fell short by four points against Puerto Rico, 73-77.
De Ocampo said they played small-ball to perfection with Jimmy Alapag, LA Tenorio and Jayson Castro manning the guard spot, Marc Pingris at forward and naturalized player Andray Blatche and June Mar Fajardo at center.
“We won with a small line up,” De Ocampo said.
“We were fast, non-stop, full-attack offense and we played with a disruptive defense. We made sure that we’ll be staying in front of the faces of the players we were guarding. We don’t allow easy baskets. They couldn’t easily blow by.”
“These are the most important things. We’re a smaller team. If we’re small and if we don’t play a fast-paced game, there will definitely be a disadvantage on our part.”
De Ocampo added that he sees a lot of potential in the current Gilas squad, which is now undergoing a rigid training in Europe.
“There are several positive things that I’ve seen are, No. 1, the time to prepare. There’s still enough time to prepare. They’re having their training overseas,” he said.
“It’s difficult to compete in the World Cup if you practice or prepare for two weeks. I think in the last World Cup in 2019, they were only able to complete their roster three days before the start of the competition.”
