THIRDY Ravena and Dwight Ramos understand that it's important for Gilas to build cohesion to be able to compete in Group A of the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup qualifiers.
"For us, it's really a matter of getting to know each other," Ravena told Radyo5's Power and Play with Noli Eala. "Yung chemistry sa loob, malaking tulong na parehas kami ng sistema [with TNT]. We just have to be familiar sa mga laro namin para alam namin kung saan yung isa't isa during the game."
Ramos agreed, noting "We're just trying to get everything together, get ready on defense and our offensive systems. For now, we're just working on coming together as a team."
Ravena and Ramos were cleared by their Japan B.League teams to suit up for Gilas in Fiba's February window.
"It's been great so far. I got to play with the other Gilas guys as well. I was playing with the TNT team also. It's been fun playing with coach Chot and his system. We're just getting used to everything. I think everything is going well," said Ramos.
Chot Reyes will have PBA players reinforcing the young Gilas squad.
Ravena also felt the same, saying "Hopefully, I could jell with the team and the system as fast as I could as soon as possible. We have 15 days, there's no guarantee kung saan kami makaabot in 15 days but we're gonna try our best and we hope that preparation is enough for us to win in this window against very tough teams like Korea and New Zealand."
For the two, it's all a matter of adapting to Reyes' dribble-drive system as they hope to mesh well with the rest of the squad and perform well come the games at the Big Dome.
"First time ko under kay coach Chot, with the dribble-drive as the primary offense. Yun ang malaking pagbabago for me," said Ravena. "Tinuro naman nila at yun ang pinakauna nilang in-address. They're very hands on sa pagtulong sa akin to try and get the offense and pick it up as soon as I could."
Ramos also shared the same sentiments. "I'm learning from everything [coach Chot is] saying, the plays. We're just coming along and getting familiar playing with everybody within a different system now."
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