THE 28-man pool comprising the Philippine men’s basketball team to the Southeast Asian Games convene for the first time on Monday and begins its regular weekly practice before the Lenten break.
Coach Chot Reyes said training commences for Gilas Pilipinas right away on April 3 at the Meralco gym, giving the team at least a month of preparation before it embarks on its mission to regain the basketball gold in this edition of the biennial meet to be held in Cambodia.
“Yes, we’ll start practicing. Yung regular Monday night schedule muna,” said the national coach.
The pool named by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) last week is consisted of June Mar Fajardo, naturalized player Justin Brownlee, CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle, Jeremiah Gray, Roger Pogoy, Calvin Oftana, Poy Erram, Mikey Williams, Chris Newsome, Raymond Almazan Aaron Black, Kevin Alas, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, and Arvin Tolentino.
Reyes said even pool members whose teams are in the finals of the PBA Governors Cup will be present during the team’s first practice for ‘Mission: SEA Games.’
“Yes, they will be there. At least makapag-bonding lang together before the finals,” said the national coach.
Brownlee, Thompson, Aguilar, Malonzo, Standhardinger, Pringle, and Gray, along with Pogoy, Oftana, Erram, and Williams are all in the season-ending finals after TNT and defending champion Barangay Ginebra arranged a best-of-seven title showdown.
The SEA Games is set May 5 to 17 and where Gilas is eyeing to redeem its pride and honor after losing the basketball gold to Indonesia a year ago, 85-81.
Only Fajardo and Pogoy among the players, along with Reyes was part of the only second national team to bag a silver medal in basketball event of the biennial showpiece.
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