Come rain or shine coach Yeng Guiao. PBA IMAGES
If the recent PBA On Tour allowed his team to make significant progress, coach Yeng Guiao believes that Rain or Shine’s participation in the 42nd William Jones Cup, which begins on Saturday in Taiwan, will only make his young squad even more Even better.
“Our team could probably be even stronger after the Jones Cup,” Guiao said in Filipino before the Elasto Painters take on Chinese-Taipei A, one of the teams the host country has traditionally fielded at the annual international tournament. , at a meeting scheduled for 7 pm at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium.
Rain or Shine put in a strong showing in the league’s two-month exhibition series producing eight wins from 11 games, good for second place behind Magnolia, who won all of their assignments.
Guiao and the rest of the Elasto painters liked what they saw despite the exhibition nature of the On Tour, even mentioning a few names they felt took a chance on improving.
“We are happy with our performance in the recent PBA On Tour because we finished in second place behind Magnolia, who took it seriously unlike other teams that fielded second or third spar,” said Guiao. “We also take it seriously, because we want to continue the process of improving and developing our players.
“That is why we are happy to have finished second. Our (initial) goal was to experiment with the system we wanted to implement and, individually, give players confidence and additional game time. And we did exactly that, and more.”
Sterner’s test
“It’s a great advantage for guys like Santi Santillán, Anton Asistio, Andrei Caracut, Nick Demusis and Jhonard Clarito because they showed that they can put up a good fight against any team,” added Guiao.
Those players will face a tougher test against a Taiwanese team that is expected to feature the top players from their national team.
Naturalized Ange Kouame and import Nick Evans bolster the team to make sure Rain or Shine isn’t beaten against top-level competition that includes Iran, Korean champion Anyang KGC, the NCAA Division I team of USA University of California, Irvine and Japan Under-22 National Team.
Other participants are China-Taipei B and the national teams of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“Apart from Gabe Norwood and Beau Belga, this team doesn’t have a lot of international exposure because they are young,” Guiao said. “(But) whatever the knowledge, the experience that they can get in this Jones Cup, will be of great help to us once the PBA season starts.”
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