MANILA (Enzo Flojo's Asia on my Mind) - The FIBA Asia Challenge 2016 will not be remembered as a very successful campaign for the Philippine national men’s basketball team. The team mentored by first time head coach Josh Reyes won just one out of their five games, losing by an average of 10.3 points in their four defeats. They finished fifth in Group E, falling short of making it to the Quarter-Finals for the first time in the tournament’s history.

It’s no surprise then that a lot of people felt disappointed at Gilas’s overall performance. Many fans back home started calling for the team to be made up of PBA players again. Many questioned why the “true” Gilas head coach, Tab Baldwin, was back in Manila coaching a college team instead of being in Tehran with Gilas. Many lamented not having a naturalized player, especially with Marcus Douthit set to suit up for a Filipino club team in the 2016 Merlion Cup.

Many were not used to seeing the Philippines team defeated so many times in a single tournament, and understandably so. The Philippines have been one of the darlings of international basketball the past several years, owing to the country’s deep well of talent. Gilas have finished in the top four in most of their international tourneys, and have played on the world stage on a couple of occasions — the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2016 FIBA OQT.

For a lot of Filipino basketball fans, it was hard to see their national team go from hanging tough against France in the OQT to losing against India on the very first day of the FIBA Asia Challenge.

These were tough days for the Philippines, no question, but not all were bleak and dreary. There was a silver lining to Gilas’s campaign — a player who turned a lot of heads and impressed more than a few opponents, officials and scouts at the Azadi Indoor Stadium.

That player is Mac Belo, and he may just be one of the future stars of Gilas Pilipinas.

Belo was nothing short of stellar for the Philippines. Despite the team’s finishing with a 1-4 slate, Belo shone brightly. In the absence of any naturalized player, any PBA player, or young stars like Kiefer Ravena and Ray Parks, Gilas Pilipinas turned to Belo for leadership and production.

The 23-year-old 1.91m native of North Cotabato from the southern part of the Philippines did not disappoint. Belo kicked off his first-ever continental tournament by dropping 21 points and 5 three-pointers against India on Day 1. He followed that up by scoring 17 against Chinese Taipei and then 16 against China, but his finest work was against Kazakhstan, where Belo exploded for 30 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He hit 3 triples and shot 11-of-18 field goals in that victory over the Kazakhs, and he was, unsurprisingly, named one of the top five players of the day. He also did well in their final outing, scoring 17points and grabbing 6 rebounds against a much bigger Jordanian quintet.

Throughout those five contests, Belo showcased a varied skill-set and a high level of intensity on both ends. His final averages were 20.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.8 three-pointers per game. By tournament’s end, Belo was the competition’s second leading scorer and third-best three-point shooter (50.0% shooting), and he finished in the top ten in field goal shooting and rebounding. In short, Belo did practically everything for Gilas Pilipinas.

As far back as two or three years ago, while Belo was still a collegiate basketball player for the Far Eastern University Tamaraws, people already talked about him being physically ready to play alongside bona fide pros in the PBA. He would stay in college for a couple more seasons and eventually lead his school to the University Athletic Association of the Philippine’s men’s basketball crown in 2015. Afterwards, he donned the Philippine colors a few times in SEABA sub-zone tournaments, and now he has finally notched his first official Asia-level competition.

After Gilas returned home, a number of pundits remarked how Belo would be a shoo-in for future Gilas iterations, which, if plans don’t fall through, should see a sprinkling of the PBA’s top talents as well as a naturalized player.

I totally agree. Mac Belo is ripe. He has the body, the tools and the demeanor to be not just a star, but one of the future pillars of Gilas Pilipinas.

Enzo Flojo

FIBA

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