Gilas in the February tournament a mix of professionals, cadets

It appears that Gilas’ team that will play in the third qualifying window of the FIBA ​​Asia Cup in February would be a mix of professionals and cadets.

This became a huge possibility as cage officials began to consider the idea of ​​importing players from the professional league in their bid to bolster the Philippines’ chances of overcoming the FIBA-modeled group stage elimination. Before FIFA’s approach to encourage all nations to play. If and when the people tasked with building the best possible Gilas team include professional players, who of the current active PBA players would be selected to reinforce Gilas’ cadet squad? “We are planning and obviously we have to talk to all of our partners who are involved in the basketball landscape, my good friends in the PBA, SBP, our bosses and all the varsity teams as well,” said former Gilas coach Tab Baldwin. who is now director of the Gilas project. Some of the cadets are still in college, and Baldwin said their availability would also be a concern, as they are unsure when college programs will begin next year. “We don’t know when the college programs will be in early January, so there’s a lot to do, but I think we’ve already seen the comments from Boss (Al Panlilio) in the media that we’re probably seeing the PBA players bring in. back into the mix, ”Baldwin said. One thing that also bothers the coaching staff is whether the cadet players would peak just in time for the tournament. “Lahat sila (cadets) very impressive but you have also had two ways of thinking that. Yung is ready today and maybe he will be ready tomorrow. Kailangan balansehin, ”said Jong Uichico. “Let him be ready today like Juan GDL, Dwight Ramos and Matt Nieto.” “May mga ready rin tomorrow, for example, examples lang naman to, sina Justine Baltazar, Kmark Carino, maybe Isaac Go, just because they have size, and if Calvin Oftana, they may have a long size. Maybe they are ready for tomorrow “Uichico added. As for the PBA side, the league has already fulfilled its intention to help Gilas by having his opening for the 46th season in March, right after the window that will likely also happen in Clark’s bubble, the site of the Cup. of the Philippines from the PBA. that is about to come to an end, successfully. “Sinabihan kami ni Pres. (Al) Panlilio na puwedeng gumamit PBA players. Pinapayagan naman (PBA board of directors), kaya inusod na namin hanggang March ‘yung inauguration, ”said PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial. Gilas’ participation was one of the topics discussed during the league’s board meeting last Thursday attended by Marcial. Baldwin saw the PBA’s decision as a welcome development, as the coaching staff is now in a frenzy to gather the best possible team at the window because they have only two and a half months left to do the job. “With the PBA planning for a later start date in 2021, there may be no restrictions on what we can do with the PBA players, but until the bosses sit down and discuss all of that, we don’t know.” Baldwin said. Baldwin also cited the possibility of including Ange Kouname on the team, but that largely depends on whether the naturalization process underway at congress will be completed well in advance of the window. “Certainly we hope to have access to the same group of players and if we hope to have access to the same group of players and if we can extend that to other players, including the possibility of Ange Kouname getting his naturalization, I don’t know yet if it will be finished by then, but it would also be great, ”said Baldwin. “If all that could happen, I think we can have a few different things moving forward in the February window,” he added. Under FIBA ​​rules, a participating country can use different teams in each window. In the first window, Gilas ‘team of cadets defeated Indonesia on the Indonesians’ own ground. In the second window, Gilas twice defeated veteran-packed Thailand in the Bahrain bubble, by an average of 28 points. That gave the Filipinos a 3-0 scoreboard. Under the tournament format, after three windows, the top two teams from each group will qualify for the FIBA ​​Asia Cup 2021. The six third-place teams will advance to play a final qualifying tournament in February 2021 and the four best of this tournament will qualify. for the FIBA ​​Asia Cup 2021. Gilas’s opponent in the third window is South Korea, which, as every basketball expert knows, is a team that is always eager to beat the Filipinos. There is no question that Gilas would be formidable if it included veteran professional league players who have experience playing internationally. Some of the possible professionals that can be inserted into the national group are RR Pogoy, Ray Parks and Troy Rosario from TNT, sniper Matthew Wright from Phoenix, June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel), Christian Standhardinger, Kiefer Ravena and CJ Pérez.