A long time ago, when I used to do broadcast panel for MBA, I was taught by one of the then best statistics analyst for basketball, the late great Butch Maniego, that the numbers will tell us a story of how the game went better than any highlight video or game play can.

As I look at this scoreboard, which shows the points made by all the players in each team, I see that the scoring for Italy was pretty much distributed almost evenly among their top players with six putting in double figures. Our team had two players putting in double figures while the rest who scored had single digits.

From this alone one could see who the ball went to most of the time.

And while I would like to see the other stats, like assists, individual turnover, rebounds, and so on, right here in this picture it already shows who the coaches wanted the ball to go to.

From the points, we see how hard the players of our team worked. Everyone tried to contribute, everyone. But the strategy was nowhere to be found.

Our players came to win.

Our basketball leaders came to look good.

They say it was bad form for the Filipinos to boo their coach at the game?

But these same basketball fanatics have been telling these same coaches what was wrong with them.

You call them laymen, workers, non-professionals. But these fans have made basketball their religion.

Read their comments and you will see that they know their sport. They know their basketball. From the age of 3, when their fathers gave them tiny balls to play with, that ball always found a ring to get into.

Some of the more snobbish people in the basketball circle may think that these fans are just ignorant dabblers not knowing their thing.

But read their comments and they know about ball rotation, multiple passing, European style of ball play, amateur rules and their difference from the PBA and NBA rules.

They have watched the Gilas team from the time it was created under SBP. They have given their trust to the team and its coaching staff.

Even during the days when it was obvious that the team was fumbling due to their own errors and arrogance, these fans gave their heart.

PUSO, was the battlecry then. It is still the battlecry today.

Except that the fans wanted more. They wanted to see a win.

Who can blame them? They were promised one, even just one.

“Judge me at the World Cup” he said. So they did. And he failed! Miserably!

And now you turn the tables and call the fans uncouth, no respect, bastos!

Talk about playing the victim game.

You guys lost. Admit it without a but. Admit it without excuses.

The players played excellent, you coached terribly, and thats all there is to say.