IT’S FAJARDO’S TIME TO SHINE
Without naturalized players, Cebuano giant June Mar Fajardo gets his chance to headline Gilas Pilipinas in Fiba Asia
Coach Chot Reyes had submitted the names of the final 12 players, who will compose the Gilas Pilipinas to the Fiba Asia Cup 2017 in Beirut, Lebanon on August 8-20.
As reported earlier, former NBA player Andray Blatche was not in it, and Fil-German Christian Standhardinger took his spot as the Philippine’s naturalized player because he failed to secure a Philippine passport at the age of 16.
This would give Cebuano center Junemar Fajardo time to shine as he no longer hides behind the shadows of Blatche or Marcus Douthit, like in the previous Fiba tournaments.
Fajardo will alternate with Standhardinger, Japeth Aguilar and Raymond Almazan in the shaded lane in his first international tournament without a naturalized American player.
The three-time PBA Most Valuable Player averaged only 4.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in five international competitions that he played for the Gilas.
His best performance was at the recently concluded Southeast Asian Nations Basketball Championships held in Manila last May where he logged 9.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in six games, which is a far cry from his individual numbers in the PBA where he logged an average of 15.7 points and 11.6 rebounds per game.
Now that chances are high that he will be playing as a starter, Fajardo is expected to log more playing minutes and help Gilas campaign in their tournament.
Philippines is bracketed in Group B along with China, Iraq and Qatar. Gilas will play China on Aug. 9, Iraq on Aug. 11 and Qatar on Aug. 13.
The other brackets includes Iran, Jordan, Syria and India in Group A; Kazakhstan, Lebanon, South Korea, New Zealand for Group C and Japan, Hong Kong, Chinese-Taipei and Australia in Group D.
After the round robin elimination round, the No.1 team in each group will advance to the quarterfinal round while the No.2 and No.3 will advance to the playoffs.
In the case of Group B, its No. 2 will play No.3 in Group A and the winner will play the No.1 team in Group D. No.3 will play the No.2 in Group A and the winner will face the No.1 in Group C.
Aside from Fajardo, another Cebuano player also made it to the list – Roger Ray Pogoy, a mainstay of Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters as well as Cebuano coach Jem Ryan Betia, who used to be the assistant coach of the University of San Carlos Warriors.
Completing the list were returnees Gabe Norwood, Jayson Castro William, Calvin Abueva and Terrence Romeo and first time Fiba Asia campaigners Jiovanni Jalalon, Matthew Wright and Carl Bryan Cruz.