Gilas Pilipinas teams for international events
Looks like Gilas Pilipinas has found a new formula to deal with its busy calendar competing in international events. The formula is simple — the young players will play in the SEA Games or non-FIBA sanctioned events while the veteran players from the Philippine Basketball Association will see action in the FIBA tournaments, beginning with the Asia Cup.
Curiously, the FIBA Asia Cup and the SEA Games are just a few days apart, which means head coach Chot Reyes will need to get both the young turks and the more experienced players to prepare for training for these events.
Just recently, Reyes decided to tap young players outside of the PBA to be part of the Gilas pool. The names of Kiefer Ravena and Kobe Paras, who will both represent the Philippine 3x3 squad in the coming World Cup this month, Reymar Jose and 6-foot-7 Fil- German Christian Standhardinger, have been included in the pool.
These players were not part of the pool from which Reyes chose his 12 players who competed in the SEABA Men’s Championship as he decided to go for an all-PBA squad.
The four players Reyes recently included will join Jio Jalalon, Mike Tolomia, Almond Vosotros, Ed Daquioag, Matthew Wright, RR Pogoy, Von Pessumal, Kevin Ferrer, Carl Bryan Cruz, Mac Belo, Fonzo Gotladera in the training, which will start on June 20.
These players are expected to play for the country in the SEA Games, which will be held a few days after the FIBA Asia Cup. The FIBA Asia Cup, on the other hand, is another major event. This will be an important one for the Philippines as this will determine the participants for the six-window homeand-away competitions leading to the 2019 World Cup.
In the FIBA Asia Cup, Gilas Pilipinas is expected to send its best team to compete against some of the powerhouse squads in the region.
Aside from the traditional powerhouse countries like China, South Korea, and teams from the Middle East, participants from Oceania like Australia and New Zealand are also joining.
In the FIBA Asia Cup, the Philippines is bracketed with defending champion China, Iraq and Qatar in Group B.
If Gilas Pilipinas put up its best squad ever to win the SEABA, then the team is likely to form its most formidable unit in the FIBA Asia Cup. Bringing in Andray Blatche for this major event remains to be seen, though we saw him play in the same tournament in 2015.
Blatche came in tip-top condition in the SEABA Championship and he remains to be in peak form. The Filipinos came close to winning the past two editions – the one in Manila, which eventually qualified the country back to the world stage, and the one in China two years ago where the country finished second to the host squad despite playing minus June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar and out-of-shape Blatche.
With Fajardo, Aguilar and an in- form Blatche in the lineup, Gilas Pilipinas has a good shot of winning the gold medal and duplicate the feat the country last did in 1986 when the amateur- laden team reinforced by naturalized players Dennis Still and Jeff Moore won the championship.
Now the next challenge for Gilas Pilipinas is when will the veteran PBA players be available and be released for training?
THE LINK REY JOBLE