Gilas still far from fighting form
As the 2017 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers looms, Gilas Pilipinas has been grinding out in their twice-a-day practices.
“We’re catching up but we’re not yet where we want to be obviously,” head coach Chot Reyes assessed Gilas’ readiness for the tournament.
The national team started its preparations last Friday. Since Monday, they have been holding a couple of sessions per day – one in the morning and one in the evening.
“We were able to get three straight days of two-a-days so we’re very happy about the preparations. We’re battling some injuries now, Terrence and Japeth, and obviously Andray isn’t here. But otherwise we’re fine.”
Gilas included 16 players in the pool for the first window of the qualifiers, composed of veterans June Mar Fajardo, Jayson Castro, Gabe Norwood, Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario, Allein Maliksi, Raymond Almazan, and Andray Blatche, as well as cadets Kiefer Ravena, Roger Pogoy, Carl Bryan Cruz, Mac Belo, Matthew Wright, and Kevin Alas.
On Wednesday night’s practice, only Blatche was not present. The naturalized center is expected to arrive in the country on November 12.
“We hope he would be here on the 12th but you’ll never know with Andray until he arrives,” Reyes said.
Romeo and Aguilar, although in attendance, did not participate in the drills. The GlobalPort guard is still nursing a knee injury, while the Ginebra big man just underwent a dental procedure.
With roughly two weeks remaining before their game against Japan on November 24, the Gilas mentor knows that they are pressed for time. They took a break yesterday, but afterwards they will return to their twice-a-day workouts.
“We will just continue these two-a-days until the time that Andray comes in. But we’re doing a lot of cramming. Also because these guys are in the off-season so we have to fast track their conditioning. Yun ang malaking bagay,” he said.—