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MANILA – The third window for Group A of the FIBA Asian Cup Qualifiers (ACQ) will be played in June, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio confirmed on Tuesday.
“The window of FIBA Asia that is supposed to happen this month has been moved to June,” said Panlilio, also governor of the Meralco Bolts team, in an online press conference with other members of the Board of the Association of Philippine Basketball (PBA) and Commissioner Willie Marcial. after their meeting at the league office in Quezon City.
Originally scheduled for February, the Group A games, of which Gilas is a part, have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Following the implementation of travel restrictions in places that have been affected by the new UK variant, including South Korea, which is also in Group A, the SBP was asked to abandon its alleged ACQ accommodation, with Qatar intervening .
However, Qatar also had to beg, as the number of coronavirus cases has risen and the SBP eventually regained its hosting rights.
Panlilio added that the SBP is still finalizing the dates, although CEO Sonny Barrios said on the Power and Play sports program on Saturday that the plan is for the Group A window to take place June 14-20 in the city. of Angeles.
If the plan goes ahead, the ACQ window will happen two weeks before Gilas heads to Belgrade for the Olympic Qualification Tournament (OQT).
However, according to Panlilio, the SBP wants to start the formation of the national team as soon as possible.
“The intention of the program is to start preparation quite early, maybe starting this month, and we could go out internationally for some competitions,” he said.
There are no PBA players for now
The tournaments Gilas will join coincide with the PBA Philippine Cup.
PBA Chairman of the Board of Directors Ricky Vargas basically ruled out the possibility of veteran professionals being part of the national team lineup for the June games.
“They would complete a team of Gilas (Cadets), and the PBA will not be asked to contribute other players other than the ones we have already contributed during this year’s draft and in the previous draft,” Vargas said, referring to the 2019 recruits. Isaac Go, Rey Suerte, Allyn Bulanadi and twin brothers Matt and Mike Nieto, as well as this year’s Gilas calls Tzaddy Rangel, Jordan Heading, Will Navarro and Jaydee Tungcab.
Panlilio pointed out that the incorporation of professionals could interrupt the PBA calendar.
“If you take a look at it, if we really want to start training even this month and the PBA would start their season in April, and this will run until July 4, which is the last day of OQT, it could completely descale the PBA calendar, ”he said.
Panlilio then said that having a non-PBA Gilas team could be long-term.
“We are trying to present a plan, and that is being thought now, of a team completely outside the PBA that uses the five that we already selected last season and the four that we would write this year, so there are nine.” and if you put Ange Kouame’s name there, potentially also Kai Sotto, and some of the college players, that we’re working on with the schools to get clearance from them, I think we can get to a 20, if not a list of 25 names that can enter the bubble as early as the end of the month to start training, ”he said. (PNA)
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