Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia believes his team stands to benefit from the experience his players gained in the recent Asian Games.
Gabe Norwood, Raymond Almazan, Chris Tiu, Beau Belga, James Yap and Maverick Ahanmisi -- who form the core of Rain or Shine -- beefed up the national team that finished fifth in the continental games where Garcia served as an assistant to head coach Yeng Guiao.
"I hope we can bring (the things we learned in the Asian Games) to this conference," said Garcia as the Elasto Painters begin their campaign in the PBA Governors' Cup later this month.
The Elasto Painters makes their debut on the road on Sept. 22. They battle a struggling Talk N' Text team in Passi City, Iloilo with J'Nathan Bullock will reinforcing the Elasto Painter for the second straight year.
In connection with its Asiad stint, Rain or Shine has been scheduled to play all its 11 games in a span of two months to make up for its absence at the start of the conference.
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Garcia said he too learned a lot from the Asiad stint and will try to adapt use some to his team as they hope to build on its semi-final appearance in the Commissioner's Cup.
"One of the experiences we had in the Asian Games is nakikita namin yung mga kalaban namin na how they play the game whatever the score is," Garcia shared. "They give their 100 percent whether they are down by 30. Sabi ko, that's the kind mentality that we have to have.
"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 pumupok sila," added Garcia.
"Pati ako dami kong natutunan. Watching (South) Korea play, watching how they move, tapos certain plays that you can adopt.(JT)
