THE Gilas Pilipinas team bound for the 20th Asian Games has left Manila on Wednesday morning to continue its build-up after preparing separately from the national squad that competed in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
The Asiad squad is different from the Gilas team at the World Cup qualifiers with the exception of Justine Baltazar and Justin Arana, who were called up due to the unavailability of Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu, and Carl Tamayo.
READ Gilas Asiad team plays down tune-up win over FIBA counterparts
Gilas management, however, also decided to leave out PBA stars Juan Gomez de Liano, Cjay Perez, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Troy Rosario, and the recently-retired June Mar Fajardo to the Asiad despite the league still on a long break.
Instead, Gilas deployed RJ Abarrientos, Robert Bolick, Adrian Nocum, Sedrick Barefield, Zavier Lucero, Don Trollano, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Jerrick Ahanmisi, and Brandon Bates. The 12th and final spot is reserved for naturalized player Justin Brownlee.
Abarrientos is also part of the FIBA pool but didn’t play in the last international window, while some played in the Southeast Asian Games. A few are playing for the national team for the very first time.
Explaining the decision, Gilas coach Tim Cone said wants to bring to the Asiad a fresher team from the side that battled Jordan and Iran in the qualifiers.
Both games were fiercely fought, with Gilas beating Jordan in overtime, 82-81, and Iran, 67-59.
“It’s pretty much a different group of players,” Cone said. “It is really kind of smart, in my opinion. And I wasn’t the one that came up with the idea of bringing two teams or making two teams.
"You come off these windows like these, you’re really exhausted, the preparation you had to do. Then, you got to turn around and go right to the Asian Games.”
Gilas actually got the idea from its experience in 2014 when the national team then coached by Chot Reyes was coming off the high of competing at the World Cup and winning a game against Senegal before playing in the Asian Games.
The Asiad campaign in Incheon turned out to be a disaster, with the team placing seventh, after being the second-best Asian team in the World Cup that year.
“We’ve had that in the past and it hasn’t worked out. I remember Chot’s team when he went to the World Cup. They played fabulous in the World Cup. It was in Spain. And then, they had to fly all the way to Korea and play the Asian Games. They didn’t have the energy to play because after that grueling World Cup that they had.
Cone definitely hopes that the gambit will pay off as they go to the Asiad as the defending champions even with a hastily-formed squad led by Justin Brownlee.
“The idea of bringing fresher guys - guys who are motivated to come and play and play for their country, I think it’s a good idea,” said Cone.
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