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    Collegiate stars tapped for all-cadets Gilas team to Fiba qualifiers

    With PBA players ruled out, college stars will beef up the Gilas pool for the November qualifiers
    Oct 13, 2020

    THE future has been fast-tracked as Gilas Pilipinas has secured the commitment of collegiate stars for the upcoming 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.

    Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin bared that a number of college players have given their verbal commitment to join what will likely be an all-cadets team for the November window.

    "We do have some players that have agreed to be part of it," he told SportsPage on Tuesday.

    Baldwin, however, refused to disclose any of the names, saying, "Until we can announce a roster, I don't think we should do things differently than we do at other times if we can avoid it."

    Among those likely to be tapped are University of the Philippines star Kobe Paras, La Salle center Justine Baltazar, and Ateneo guard Dave Ildefonso, all of whom were given invites to the pool back in the first window in February.

    The American-Kiwi mentor has previously said that with 2020 Philippine Cup in full swing inside the Clark bubble, the federation has already ruled out tapping PBA players and coaches for the team.

    That has forced the SBP to explore other options, including the possibility of calling up overseas-based players as well as the current stars in the amateur ranks.

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    "We don't expect the PBA bubble to be able to be broken in any way. So you know at this point, we certainly are ruling out the inclusion of PBA players and coaches," he said.

    "Now, that means that we have to either look at players overseas, and that are domiciled overseas, which again are going to be very difficult because they more than likely have schedules going on right now, or look into our college ranks which is probably the most likely and the one that coach Ryan (Gregorio) and I are spending most of our time working on right now."

    Another concern, as Baldwin noted, is on who will be allowed by their parents and schools to train with Gilas amid the COVID-19 pandemic under parameters to be set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

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    Currently, Gilas only has five players at its disposal, namely special Gilas draftees Isaac Go, Rey Suerte, Allyn Bulanadi, and brothers Matt and Mike Nieto. The team could go up to six if Jaydee Tungcab will be called up.

    The number could go up to seven depending on the situation of Thirdy Ravena, who is still waiting for his Japanese visa to be able to make his debut for San-En NeoPhoenix in the B.League.

    Small as that group is, Baldwin said that he and the players have been in constant communication with each other throughout the quarantine period.

    "The one thing that I can say is that the communication has been non-stop between the players, between the players and the coaches, between myself as a coach and the SBP. Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, you know, we've been talking scenarios for months now and just guessing, really," he said.

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    "Now, we have some sense of direction, but we still don't know a lot of detail. The most important thing is trying to assemble the roster and coach Ryan and I particularly have been working on that pretty hard in the last month. But even that is still yet to be determined."

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      Gilas fans need not wait long, though, as forming the roster for the November window is a top priority for the SBP.

      "Really, what we want to do is finalize a roster as quickly as we can, and then we'll announce the roster, given that we're going to be going into a training camp and ultimately playing games in November," he said.

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