KINGS CORE TO PLAY IN SEAG
FAJARDO, CASTRO ALSO TAPPED FOR DUTY
Gilas Pilipinas will wear Barangay Ginebra’s never-say-die badge in the coming Southeast Asian Games as six Gin Kings were tapped to spearhead Team Philippines’ title defense in the biennial meet.
Gilas coach Tim Cone yesterday named Gin Kings La Tenorio, Scottie Thompson, Stanley Pringle, Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar and Arthur dela Cruz as the nucleus of his 15-man pool, banking on their familiarity with how he wants to do things as they cram in their buildup for the Manila joust.
He then spiced up the Ginebra group with two-time Asia’s Best Guard Jayson Castro, who agreed to return to Gilas duties after begging off in the last FIBA World Cup, together with veterans of the China worlds RR Pogoy, Troy Rosario, and June Mar Fajardo, as well as Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, Christian Standhardinger, Vic Manuel and Matthew Wright.
The pool will have eight to 14 practices over the next three months heading into the SEAG title defense, which Cone has stresed is “no slam dunk.”
“With limited practice, we don’t have a whole lot of time to teach, time to try out and get a lot of the guys in, figure out who’s it gonna be, so we narrowed it down and we tried to come with the idea of maybe because of the short window we have, maybe we should go with a team I’m familiar with – Ginebra – get six of its players and reinforce it,” said Cone, who presented his plans during yesterday’s PBA board of governors meeting.
The two-time PBA grand slam champion coach stressed that the pool of veterans was the best he could form given the circumstances.
“I don’t have time to teach everybody. If I have a core group that already understands what we’d like to do in terms of system offensively and defensively, then those players will help me coach the other players who will be added on,” he said
“So it’s not gonna be really getting the best players to go; it’s gonna be trying to create the best team we can get in a short period of time and be the most efficient team we can put together and I think that comes with the idea of having a core group that knows the system and adding in players to that core, upgrading the talent of that core,” he added.
Cone, who steered the Philippine Centennial Team to the bronze in the 1998 Asian Games, knows too well the importance of the basketball gold to Filipinos, especially in a tournament played on home soil.
“This is something we don’t want to lose. This is our home territory. We’re hosting. We want to make sure that our showcase sport wins the gold medal and so we’re gonna go really hard and try to figure out the best to do this and do it well. That’s the goal,” he said.
Meanwhile, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio also announced that PBA players will carry the fight for the country in the inaugural 3x3 competition in the SEAG.
Named to the pool were Anthony Semerad, Robert Bolick, Chris Newsome, Terrence Romeo, Ian Sangalang, Mac Belo, Chris Banchero, Raymond Almazan, CJ Perez, Jason Perkins, Mo Tautuaa, and Baser Amer.
Gilas 3x3 coach Ronnie Magsanoc, according to Panlilio, will later pick four for the actual hostilities.