THE Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) will be submitting to the PBA the list of players it is going to include in the Gilas Pilipinas pool for the third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
SBP president Al S. Panlilio said he’s conferring with Gilas Pilipinas project director Tab Baldwin on the players the federation will be requesting from the pro league for the Feb. 18-21 bubble window at Clark Mimosa.
“The ball is on my court. I need to work with coach Tab. Hopefully by next week, I could give Commissioner Willie (Marcial) some names on the request for PBA players to be part of that bubble for the February window,” said Panlilio during a special press conference on the Clark sports bubble on Saturday.
“That’s on me now. I’ll work with coach Tab on that list now and then get back to Com. Willie.”
“Nag-usap kami ni President Al nung isang araw regarding sa lineup. Sabi ko sabihin agad para masabihan yung mga players kasi nga nagbabakasyon (sila). Basta okay sa mga players, wala na problema,” said Marcial.
Gilas will train inside a bubble at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna.
Panlilio hinted the national team roster could be a mixed of PBA and cadet players since as he stressed, ‘this is not only for this window, but really more for a developmental program for the SBP.’
“We want to use this event to develop the young players and bring in the veterans and have games to play them together so we become a better team down the road,” said the SBP chief.
Inserting cadets, Panlilio added, will sustain the development of these young players, who exclusively made up the Gilas roster during the last window in Manama where the Filipinos scored back-to-back wins against Thailand.
The presence of the pro players meanwhile, is also needed since the final window is a tough one for the host with games against nemesis Korea and Indonesia, according to Panlilio.
“We have two games against Korea and one game against a much-improved Indonesia,” he said.
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