GILAS Pilipinas is in a bind after the team was forced to make another round of changes to its men's basketball lineup with the Asian Games just days away, to the consternation of Filipino basketball fans.
READ: Gilas calls up Ross, Alas, Arvin, CJ, Lassiter for Asiad
In the latest shuffle, Chris Ross, Kevin Alas, Arvin Tolentino, and CJ Perez were brought in at the last minute, replacing Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Jason Perkins, and Mo Tautuaa. Marcio Lassiter is set to replace the injured Roger Pogoy in the line-up.
How did it happen?
Initial 60-man list
According to Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and Gilas Pilipinas officials, the first 12-man list was taken from a list of 60 players initially submitted to the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC). The list includes players from the PBA, overseas, and UAAP, and even naturalized players such as Jordan Clarkson, Justin Brownlee, and Ange Kouame, and even former Gilas player Andray Blatche.
Not on the 60-man list were Calvin Abueva and Jason Perkins, whose inclusion in the Final 12 was the subject of an appeal made by SBP and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) before Hangzhou organizers.
There was, or at least supposedly, less concern on two other newcomers in Terrence Romeo and Mo Tautuaa, who were on the original 60-player list.
“We were only worried about Calvin and Jason. The other two guys (Romeo and Tautuaa) were on the list so walang problema,” said interim coach Tim Cone, who picked the 12 players which he introduced in a press conference last week.
37-man list surfaces
Shortly after the team started practicing, however, a problem arose after a new list that was also submitted to HAGOC surfaced. That list, it turned out, contained the pool of players that should be the basis for the final roster. It was not disclosed when this list was passed to the organizers.
“What happened later was five days ago, we were told that there is another list that was submitted. And it is a list of 37 players,” said Cone.
On that list, it wasn’t only Abueva and Perkins who were missing but Terrence Romeo and Mo Tautuaa as well. It meant that unless HAGOC allows Gilas to make late changes, the Philippines must replace four players from the initial 12-man roster.
“We had a 60 list that we originally worked off… Now the new list, all four players were not on the list. So now we are requesting four players who are not on the list,” said Cone.
Solution
To resolve the issue, Gilas looked for replacements from the 37-man list, which is also a mix of players from the PBA, UAAP, and overseas players. But from the new list, only six were available, namely Ross, Alas, Tolentino, Perez, Lassiter, and Aaron Black.
“In the meantime, we had to go through the list of 37 and look at that list and look for four replacements, the guys that supposedly can’t go which is Jason, Calvin, Mo, and Terrence. We had to look for four,” said Cone.
Other players were unavailable due to their overseas commitments and injuries.
With Roger Pogoy out due to a health issue, Gilas replaced the TNT gunner with Lassiter - a move that the SBP said may not pose much of a problem as Lassiter is part of the 37-man list.
Gilas and SBP now wait for the official ruling from HAGOC which they hope to get within the next 24 to 48 hours to know which players will be eligible to play for the national team in a few days' time.
Who's the blame for this confusion?
Your guess is as good as ours.
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