RAIN or Shine Elasto Painters will bank on their recent Asian Games stint as they begin their campaign in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup in Passi City, lloilo province against TNT KaTropa on Saturday at the City of Passi Arena.
Six Painters players – James Yap, Gabe Norwood, Raymond Almazan, Chris Tiu, Beau Belga, and Maverick Ahanmisi – were part of the Philippines’ Asiad team under head coach Yeng Guiao that finished on fifth place.
“I hope we can bring the things we learned in the Asian Games to this conference,” said Painters head coach Carlos Garcia. “We also want to build on our semifinals appearance during the Commissioner’s Cup.”
Garcia personally learned a lot from their Asiad stint and will try to use some in his team as they aim for a medal finish in the season-ending conference.
“Nakikita namin iyong mga kalaban namin how they play the game whatever the score is,” Garcia said. “They give their 100 percent whether they are down by 30. Sabi ko sa mga players, that’s the kind mentality that we have to have.”
He added: “I told the team na ’di tayo pwedeng pa-relax-relax lang kasi that’s the one thing we want to address to the players sa Rain or Shine na kailangan pumukpok sila. Pati ako dami kong natutunan, watching Korea play, watching how they move.”
Painters brought back American J’Nathan Bullock as import as the latter was already familiar with his teammates and the team’s system./PN
