Replicating Argentina

I had two favorite teams when I covered the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China.

The first, of course, was our very own Gilas Pilipinas.

Yes, despite their dismal showing, they still caught my fancy, which I would discuss more in my next column.

For now, however, let me talk about my other favorite team — Argentina.

Dubbed as “El Alma Argentina,” this squad was one of the biggest draws and one of the most fascinating stories of the quadrennial tournament, the biggest stage of international basketball.

Coming into the tournament, Argentina was counted among the title contenders, but it was no means among the favorites. Those spots were reserved for the likes of reigning champion United States, European powerhouse Serbia, Greece, Spain and France as well as the up and coming Australian squad.

Remember, too, that Argentina had a forgettable stint at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, losing twice in the group stage to Lithuania and Spain before getting knocked off by the Americans in the quarterfinals.

Sergio Hernandez’s words did win the gold meal in the Pan American Games, winning four of their five games with their only loss coming from the hands of Mexico, 72-64, in the group stage.

After that tournament, Argentina went 3-3 in its preparation games for the World Cup, winning over Montenegro, Japan and Russia, but losing to Brazil, France and Spain.

Owing to the Argentines’ relatively favorable World Cup draw, they were expected to advance to the second round without much incident.

But nobody expected them to go as far as they eventually did.

Argentina opened its World Cup bid by blowing out Korea, 95-69, before upending a Nigerian squad laced with NBA talents, 94-81, and Surviving Russia, 69-61, to sweep Group B in Wuhan.

In the second round, Hernandez and his boys recorded lopsided victories over familiar foe Venezuela, 87-67, and the European upstart Poland, 91-65.

The biggest surprise in their run, though, came in the quarterfinals with an earlier-than-expected matchup with Serbia.

The Serbians were coming off a shock loss to eventual champion Spain in the second round and were raring to bounce back strong.

Behind the absolutely terrific play from seemingly ageless Luis Scola and the crafty Facundo Campazzo, Argentina ran rings around the mighty Serbians and knocked them out of contention, 97-87.

Campazzo’s teammates at Real Madrid, Gabriel Deck and Nicolas Laprovittola, also impressed along with Saski Baskonia mainstays Luca Vildoza and Patricio Garino.

Hernandez then pulled off another upset, shutting France down in the semifinals, 80-66, before running out of steam against Spain it the finals, 75-95.

The Argentines finished the World Cup with seven wins in eight games with most of their victories coming from bigger and even deeper teams.

Argentina had Scola, who was among the oldest players in the entire tournament and its coach was not as well-known as some of the other “household names” in the World Cup like Gregg Popovich of the United States, Sasha Djordjevic of Serbia, Vincent Collet of France or Sergio Scariolo of Spain.

In many ways, despite Argentina’s status as a FIBA Americas powerhouse, it was not seen as a strong title bet, and yet it still finished as the second-best team on the planet.

How did the Argentines do it, and can we replicate these elements to Philippine basketball?

First off, Argentina doesn’t rely on size.

Their average height is 6-foot-5, which is not far off from Gilas Pilipinas’ 6-foot-4 average. They don’t have anyone listed 6-foot-10 or taller while the Filipinos have three in Andray Blatche, June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar.

Despite not being a big team, however, Argentina held its own in rebounding, thanks to its physicality and aggressive boxing out of opponents.

Scola, of course, was among the top rebounders with 8.1 rebounds per game although Blatche was a little better with 8.4 rebounds per game.

Next, Argentina’s backcourt was sharp, both in terms of execution and shooting.

Campazzo, Laprovittola, and Vildoza knew that they needed to dictate the tempo in every single one of the matchups, and that the tempo needed to be fast-paced. Given their disadvantage in size, Argentina couldn’t afford a slow, deliberate, slugfest against their opponents, most of whom had the edge in height, length and athleticism.

Hernandez and his crew ran the ball at every opportunity with their guards making the right decisions almost every time down the floor.

They also didn’t turn the ball over often, recording under 12 errors a game. In contrast, Gilas had 15 turnovers per game, which is the third highest in the tournament.

This was made extra effective by the fact that Argentina’s frontliners were also mobile and could finish confidently against bigger, stronger foes.

That brings me to my next point, the versatility of Argentina’s frontcourt.

Hernandez’s main frontline rotation was composed of Marcos Delia, who will play in the Mexican top division this season, Scola, NBA prospect Deck, and even converted wingman Nicolas Brussino of Basket Zaragoza, who sometimes had to play as a small-ball four.

Despite giving up as many as four to five inches against taller opponents, Argentina’s bigs compensated with their perimeter shooting, their ability to put the ball on the floor, and their quickness in transition.

In so many instances, Scola, Deck, and Brussino would be able to outrun their defenders or drive past them, but that was also brought about by their reliable outside shooting, which forced the defense to stretch and open up seams in the lane.

Defensively, the Argentines were also bloodhounds. Almost every single time, Campazzo and company would shadow the opposing ball-handlers baseline-to-baseline, disrupting their flow and execution.

These are not groundbreaking elements, but Argentina executed them so well.

Those are but a few of the things, at least in terms of in-game tactics, that we can study for future Gilas Pilipinas iterations.

We don’t need to be the biggest team, but we need bigs who are multi-faceted and guards who can complement them with speed, shooting, and perhaps most critical and yet most difficult to teach, high IQ decision-making.

Of course, it also helped that many of the Argentine players have been playing at this level with generally the same system and the same coaching staff for quite some time.

Hernandez brought only 12 players to China, six of them were part of the 2014 World Cup team and seven were part of the Rio Olympics.

Hernandez himself is an international basketball veteran, having coached the national team in two World Cups in 2006 and 2010 and two Olympics in 2008 and 2016.

The continuity and experience at the international level were certainly crucial for Argentina’s success.

Can we adopt some of these things here in the Philippines?

For sure, but will they be enough to make up for our humiliation in China? Nope.

We need to shake up our entire basketball ecosystem for significant changes to happen.

Remember that we’re no longer aiming to break into the top 30 of the world. We’ve already done that and then slid below it.

If we want to go even higher in the FIBA World Rankings, we cannot keep on doing the same things over and over.