How Gilas Pilipinas Can Dominate International Basketball Competitions
Through the program, local schools will partner with SLU to identify and nominate promising students to receive half-tuition scholarships worth more than $28,000 per year. Applicants will remain eligible for additional scholarships above this level.
The roar of the crowd was deafening, a physical force that vibrated through the polished court and up into the very soles of my shoes. I was courtside, not as a player anymore, but as an analyst, watching a local PBA-on-Tour game. The score was tight, a nail-biter in the final two minutes, but my focus wasn't on the star import draining threes. It was on a player named Kyt Jimenez. He didn't have the most eye-catching stat line at first glance, but as I watched him orchestrate the offense, a single, powerful thought crystallized in my mind: this is the blueprint. This is precisely how Gilas Pilipinas can dominate international basketball competitions.
You see, for years, we've been obsessed with finding the next big scorer, the towering giant who can match up with Serbia's or Spain's best. And don't get me wrong, size matters. But what I witnessed that night was a masterclass in a different kind of dominance—the kind built on relentless, intelligent guard play. Jimenez was a maestro. He finished the game with what I'd call a quiet storm of a stat line: 11 points, 10 assists, and 3 rebounds. The points were nice, sure, but those 10 assists? That was the story. He wasn't just passing the ball; he was dissecting the defense, finding seams that shouldn't have existed, and creating easy opportunities for everyone else. He was the engine, and the team moved with a fluidity I haven't seen from our national squad in a while. It’s this kind of floor generalship, this high-IQ playmaking, that can be our secret weapon on the global stage. International defenses are systems; they're disciplined and structured. A player like Jimenez, who can break those systems down not just with speed but with vision, is worth his weight in gold.
And then there's the other side of the coin. While Jimenez was weaving his magic, his teammate, Coy Alves, was doing the dirty work that often goes unnoticed by the casual fan. Alves put up 13 points and, crucially, 8 rebounds. Now, Alves isn't a seven-foot behemoth. He's a wing player, but he fought for every single one of those 8 boards against bigger opponents. This, to me, is non-negotiable. The question of how Gilas Pilipinas can dominate isn't just about scoring; it's about surviving the possession battle. We will almost always be outsized. We can't change our genetics. But we can absolutely change our hunger and our technique. Alves demonstrated that. It’s about five guys committing to rebounding as a unit, about guards crashing the boards to help the bigs. If we can have four players on the court at all times who can chip in like Alves did—not necessarily a double-double, but a solid 8-10 rebounds from an unexpected source—we negate one of our biggest disadvantages. We get extra possessions, we limit second-chance points for the other team, and we fuel our fast break, which is where our guards' speed can truly terrorize opponents.
I remember talking to a former national team coach once, and he told me something that stuck with me: "International basketball is a game of margins." He wasn't talking about 20-point blowouts. He was talking about a single possession, a single box-out, a single smart pass that leads to an open corner three. Watching Jimenez and Alves operate was like watching that philosophy come to life. Jimenez's 10 assists likely translated to at least 20 points, maybe more if they were three-pointers. That's a direct, tangible impact that doesn't always show up in the highlight reels but wins you games against technically superior teams. Alves's 8 rebounds, especially if a few were on the offensive glass, mean extra shots, more fatigue for the opponent, and demoralization. This one-two punch of elite guard play and collective, tenacious rebounding is a formula that travels well. It doesn't rely on having a single superstar who might have an off night; it relies on a system and a mindset.
So, as the final buzzer sounded and Jimenez's team celebrated their hard-fought victory, I felt a surge of optimism. The pieces are here, in our own backyard. We don't need to reinvent the wheel or pray for a miracle. The path to figuring out how Gilas Pilipinas can dominate international basketball competitions is about embracing an identity. It's about prioritizing playmakers who control the tempo and make everyone better, like Kyt Jimenez did with his 10 dimes. And it's about instilling a warrior's mentality on the glass, where every player, regardless of height, attacks the rebound like Coy Alves and his 8 boards. It's a gritty, smart, and collective style of basketball. Frankly, it's a style I prefer—it’s heart over pure height, and there's nothing more Filipino than that. If we can bottle that energy from that local game and pour it into the Gilas program, I genuinely believe we're not just going to compete; we're going to start winning in a way that makes the entire basketball world take notice.