Gilas crams for SEABA
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said yesterday the final 12-man roster for the national squad competing in the SEABA Championships here on May 12-18 will be named on April 28 and only 10 days of practice as a complete team are scheduled without the benefit of a single tune-up.
Reyes admitted the situation is “not ideal” but “it’s better than nothing.” Although once-a-week Monday practices started this week, he said the final team of 12 will get together for training only on May 1 after the PBA All-Star Weekend.
“We won’t name 15 anymore,” said Reyes, referring to the initial plan of trimming the pool of 25, including naturalized player Andray Blatche, to 15. “The entire pool practices daily starting April 10 but players can still play for their mother teams in the PBA and are excused from Gilas practice the day before and on game days.”
Under the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the PBA and SBP, the Gilas rookies in the pro league should have been released for national team training 60 days before the May 12 start of the SEABA tournament. That would have been last March 12. The MOA also stipulated the release of the other PBA players in the pool 15 days before May 12, coinciding with the deadline to submit the final 12-man lineup to FIBA Asia for the SEABA competition.
A source said the SBP was reluctant to agree to the release of the other PBA players 15 days before the start of the SEABA tournament because it would be too short a period to practice the final 12. But the MOA was signed anyway as there was urgency to seal it with the PBA draft involving Gilas players coming up late last year. The understanding was a proposal to release the other PBA players 30 days before the start of the SEABA event would be later endorsed to the PBA Board of Governors. As it turned out, the original terms of the MOA were not revised.
The PBA, however, will provide three windows for Gilas to play with a partial lineup during the All-Star Weekend. The PBA All-Stars will engage Gilas in a series of exhibitions in Cagayan de Oro on April 26, Lucena on April 28 and Cebu on April 30. The quirk is the players in the Gilas Chot Reyes pool from Mindanao will join the All-Stars in Cagayan de Oro, from Luzon in Lucena and from the Visayas in Cebu. So, Gilas shoo-in JuneMar Fajardo will play with the Visayan All-Stars against Gilas in Cebu and another shoo-in Jayson Castro will see action with the Luzon All-Stars in Lucena.
“We’ll name the final 12 by the SEABA deadline on April 28 during the All-Star Weekend but we won’t be able to practice fully until May 1 as there is still the Cebu game on April 30,” said Reyes. “Subsequent tournaments, tune-ups and training schedules after the SEABA tournament (for the FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut on April 10-20 and the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur on April 19-31) are still up for discussion.”
Blatche’s arrival in Manila depends on how long the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) finals will be. Game 1 of the finals is set today with Blatche’s team Xinjiang Flying Tigers taking on the Guangdong Southern Tigers in a best-of-7 series. If the finals extends to a Game 7, the last day of the title playoffs will be on April 16.
The SBP and PBA named an initial Gilas pool of 24. Troy Rosario, Almond Vosotros and Blatche were later added to the pool. Art de la Cruz and Russel Escoto were struck out due to injuries with no replacements. Paul Lee was also delisted because of injury although he’s now playing for Star in the second conference and was replaced by Allein Maliksi. The pool is now down to 25 with Castro, Rosario, Roger Pogoy, Fajardo, Arnold Van Opstal, Norbert Torres, Matthew Wright, Jio Jalalon, Maliksi, Japeth Aguilar, Kevin Ferrer, Calvin Abueva, Carl Bryan Cruz, Terrence Romeo, Von Pessumal, Jonathan Grey, Ed Daquioag, Mac Belo, Raymond Almazan, Mike Tolomia, Bradwyn Guinto, Ponzo Gotladera, L. A. Revilla, Vosotros and Blatche.