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IN THE TRUTH, Gilas Pilipinas would have wanted Ken Tuffin and James Spencer to be part of his training group for the second window of the 2021 Fiba Cup Asia qualifiers.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin told Coaches Unfiltered that the two were actually part of the group planned for their training bubble at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba in November.
“We actually invited Ken Tuffin and James Spencer, but they are both out of the country. There were problems with them coming back to the country while in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
Tuffin, a 6-foot-4 Fil-Kiwi sniper from Far Eastern University, recently played for the Taranaki Mountainairs in the New Zealand National Basketball League. He was previously part of coach Chot Reyes’ group 23 of 2023 and even briefly played for the cadet team at the 2018 Filoil Flying V Pre-Season Cup.
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Spencer, on the other hand, is a 6ft 3in Fil-Aussie shooting guard from the University of the Philippines who was part of the Gilas Youth team at the 2019 Fiba U19 World Cup in Greece.
The duo would have reinforced an already loaded wing rotation for Gilas, which already featured Rey Suerte, Javi Gómez de Liano, Calvin Oftana, Mike Nieto and an injured Allyn Bulanadi.
“Those are two guys who would have given us more wings and we already had a surplus of wings,” said Baldwin, who also had incoming Athenaeum guard Chris Koon serve as a practice player for the camp.
Apart from the two, Thirdy Ravena, who was playing in Japan with San-En NeoPhoenix, was also part of the discussions.
But like the duo mentioned above, “there are always availability issues.”
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Gilas fans have also been boisterous in their clamor for other college stars, namely Rhenz Abando de Letran, Aljun Melecio and Mark Nonoy de La Salle, and Carl Tamayo of the University of the Philippines among those frequently mentioned, to be considered. part of the cadet pool.
For his part, Baldwin admitted that the SBP “considered everyone,” but there were factors that coaches and top brass decided before naming their 16-man group.
“There are many factors that influence how we view players and how we view them in the national team environment,” he said.
However, that doesn’t mean that those who missed the cut will no longer be able to play for Gilas in the future.
For them, Baldwin could only offer one piece of advice: “Just keep doing what you’re doing and prove yourself at every elevated level you are asked to compete at.”
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