No Andray Blatche for Gilas Pilipinas in FIBA Asia

ANDRAY BLATCHE, Gilas Pilipinas’ naturalized player, will not be available to play for the national team when it competes in the FIBA Asia Cup.

The former Brooklyn Nets player refused to join the team due to security reasons as the games will be played in Lebanon.

With Mr. Blatche unable to join, his spot will be taken over by Fil- German Christian Standhardinger, a 6-foot-8 player in the European League who just joined the Gilas Pilipinas program just recently.

Mr. Standhardinger, who had an impressive showing playing for the Philippine men’s basketball team in the just concluded William Jones Cup, will be playing as our naturalized player.

Although he has Filipino blood, Mr. Standhardinger is only qualified to play as a naturalized player since he failed to get a Philippine passport before he turned 16.

Joining Standhardinger in the Gilas Pilipinas team which battles the best teams in the Asian region are June Mar Fajardo, Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Roger Pogoy, Jio Jalalon, Raymond Almazan, Carl Bryan Cruz and comebacking Gabe Norwood.

Despite missing the services of Mr. Blatche, former Philippine team coach Norman Black believes this batch of Gilas Pilipinas remains formidable.

“The team that Coach Chot (Reyes) named will still be very competitive and I expect them to do well,” said Mr. Black, who served as one of the assistant coaches of Mr. Reyes for two years.

Lack of preparation, according to Mr. Black, is the only downside of the team.

The bulk of the squad played together when Gilas Pilipinas won the SEABA tournament last May, but they’ve never practiced together as the squad which represented in the Jones Cup are composed of different set of players.

“My only concern is there lack of practice time together, but I’m sure Coach Chot will find a way to make it work,” added Mr. Black.