No Home Crowd: The Effect on Gilas

Clark hosted the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) bubble last year. Earlier this year, Subic did its part in hosting the bubble for the end of the 2019-2020 Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) playoffs. Since then, we haven't seen local basketball. Until Wednesday night when Gilas Pilipinas faces South Korea to kick-off the third window of the 2021 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup qualifiers. In Clark.

In the words of Jinno Rufino on Tuesday's episode of Hoops Life, "We'll actually have basketball in the Philippines again!"

However, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic still restricts holding games with a live audience. While the national team already played in a bubble for the second window last year, this is different because it's happening in our backyard. While Gilas is playing in the country, it won't have the advantage of having that momentous crowd it grew accustomed to.

Will this absence affect the youngest Gilas Pilipinas team that we'll be seeing on the international stage?

For Rufino's co-host Aaron Atayde, not having to deal with the outside forces such as drums and noises is something that is a welcome development for the returning Gilas Pilipinas head coach, Tab Baldwin.

"I don't know how it will affect the young players. I don't know how it'll affect the South Korean team, but the one thing that I do know is this is going to be fantastic and exactly what their new head coach, Coach Tab Baldwin wants. He's been the advocate of saying that drums and all that kind of stuff in the arena are bad for basketball. This is not the way basketball should be seen and to some extent, he's absolutely correct. If there's one voice that you need to hear out of every single person in the arena, it's of your coach. And if your coach is Coach Tab Baldwin, you're going to want to hear every single word that he says,"

Atayde added, "I'm extremely happy that he's been announced as the head coach because there should be no one else with this lineup that should be calling the shots regardless of where this man was born or raised or anything like that,"

Rufino chimed in, "This is an atmosphere that Coach Tab Baldwin would really, really relish. He really wants this. This is something that I think he would thrive in. He'll be able to get the players to focus fully on him. Nothing else. And I think that that will maybe benefit the Philippines. You don't get the energy from the crowd that will help push you but you do get the guidance from your coach,"

As the crowd-less games might just benefit this young team, Atayde explained how the absence of the home crowd will eventually affect the team.

"If you're winning, it's better to be able to hear the coach. The problem is if they go down early and they don't get that energy boost from the fans, that's when it might be a little bit of a problem,"

Gilas Pilipinas will play three games in the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers: two games against Korea and a game against Indonesia. The Philippines only needs one win to seal its seat in the FIBA Asia Cup.

Screenshot is from the pinoyliga.com Facebook page