TRUTH be told, Gilas Pilipinas would've wanted to have Ken Tuffin and James Spencer be part of its training pool for the second window of the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin told Coaches Unfiltered that the two were actually part of the planned pool for its training bubble at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba back in November.
"We actually invited Ken Tuffin and James Spencer, but both are out of the country. There were issues of them getting back to the country with them being 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 a part of coach Chot Reyes' 23-for-2023 pool and even briefly played for the cadets team in the 2018 Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup.
Spencer, on the other hand, is a 6-foot-3 Fil-Aussie guard from University of the Philippines who was a part of the Gilas Youth team in the 2019 Fiba Under-19 World Cup in Greece.
The duo would have beefed up an already loaded wing rotation for Gilas, which already had Rey Suerte, Javi Gomez 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 Ateneo guard Chris Koon serve as a practice player for the camp.
Aside from the two, also part of the discussions were Thirdy Ravena, who was playing in Japan with San-En NeoPhoenix.
But just like the aforementioned duo, "There's always availability issues."
Gilas fans have also been boisterous in their clamor for other collegiate stars — with Rhenz Abando of Letran, Aljun Melecio and Mark Nonoy of La Salle, and Carl Tamayo of University of the Philippines among those frequently mentioned — to be considered for the cadet pool.
For his part, Baldwin admitted that the SBP "considered everybody," but there were factors which the coaches and the brass decided on before naming its 16-man pool.
"There's many factors that go in how we view players and how we view them in the national team environment," he said.
It doesn't mean, though, that those who missed the cut could no longer play for Gilas in the future.
To them, Baldwin could only offer a piece of advice: "Just keep doing what they're doing and prove themselves at each elevated level where they're asked to compete."
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