WHETHER it’s an all-PBA team or a mix of pros and cadets, work comes early for Gilas Pilipinas as it prepares for the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
Coach Jong Uichico said training for the national team kicks off shortly after the holiday season as the Filipinos will have their hands full as hosts for the third window of the bubble tournament that was originally played on a home-and-away format.
“We’ll start early for window 3. We’ll come in early January so that we can get together for a long period of time that gives the system to mature, the players to mature, and get everything on track,” said Uichico on Thursday during a virtual press conference announcing the global partnership between Smart and FIBA for the 2023 World Cup.
The window is set Feb. 18 to 21 to be played inside a bubble at Clark where two groups of the qualifiers will be played, including Group A in which the Philippines is bracketed together with South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has yet to determine with finality whether it will tap an all-PBA selection or if cadet players are going to be inserted.
What is certain at the moment though is young, 7-foot-2 Kai Sotto suiting up for the national team again for the qualifiers as he himself announced during the virtual presser where he was joined by fellow Gilas players Dwight Ramos and Kobe Paras, Gilas project director Tab Baldwin, SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan, FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis, and SBP president Al S. Panlilio.
The PBA being in the offseason by February, Baldwin hinted at the possibility of having pro players donning the national colors anew.
“We should be able to access some PBA players,” according to Baldwin, aware about the pending request of the SBP before the pro league about lending its players in the first major international tournament for the country in 2021.

“What the mix of that would be is really up to the players. We want to get in the camp, we want to get all our players into camp, and we want to see them workout against one another,” said Baldwin, a former Gilas Pilipinas coach.
“The ultimate goal for us is to create a talented team, not a team of talents. And so it’s up to the players to find their place within this talented team.”
Gilas Pilipinas made do with an all-cadet team during the second window of the qualifiers held last month in Bahrain under a bubble set-up as the PBA played out the Philippine Cup in a similar bubble setting in Pampanga.
Kiefer Ravena, CJ Perez, and Christian Standhardinger were all on standby for a possible Gilas call-up after their respective teams bowed out early in the eliminations of the all-Filipino conference.
But the SBP opted to go with a cadet team that didn’t have trouble blowing away a Thailand team twice during the Nov. 27 to 30 window.
The back-to-back wins against the Thais pulled the country on top of Group A with a 3-0 record heading to the hosting chores.
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