ni VA - @Sports | October 15, 2020
Sanhi ng kanilang problema na kawalan ng maaaring makuhang mga PBA players, sinikap ng Gilas Pilipinas na makuha ang commitment ng mga collegiate stars ng bansa upang maglaro sa koponan para sa 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
Ayon kay Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin, mayroon na silang "verbal commitment" mula sa mga players sa collegiate ranks para sumali sa planong buuing all-cadets team para sa November window.
"We do have some players that have agreed to be part of it," wika ni Baldwin sa panayam dito sa programang SportsPage.
Hindi naman nagbigay ng pangalan si Baldwin kung sinu-sino ang kanilang mga nakausap, ngunit ilan sa mga inaasahang kabilang dito ay sina University of the Philippines star Kobe Paras, La Salle center Justine Baltazar, at Ateneo guard Dave Ildefonso.
Dahil kasalukuyang nasa kasagsagan ang 2020 PBA Philippine Cup sa loob ng Clark bubble, inalis na ng SBP ang posibilidad na makakuha ng mga PBA players at coaches para sa Gilas.
"We don't expect the PBA bubble to be able to be broken in any way. So you know at this point, we certainly are ruling out the inclusion of PBA players and coaches," pahayag ni Baldwin.
"Now, that means that we have to either look at players overseas, and that are domiciled overseas, which again are going to be very difficult because they more than likely have schedules going on right now, or look into our college ranks which is probably the most likely and the one that coach Ryan (Gregorio) and I are spending most of our time working on right now."
Pero may pag-aalala ngayon si Baldwin kung papayagan ba ang mga kabataang manlalaro na mapipili nila ng kanilang mga magulang o ng kanilang eskuwelahan upang mag-training para sa Gilas dahil na rin sa mga umiiral na health protocols at guidelines para sa COVID-19 pandemic na itinakda ng Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Sa kasalukuyan ay anim na players lamang mayroon ang Gilas na sina special Gilas draftees Isaac Go, Rey Suerte, Allyn Bulanadi, Jaydee Tingcab at ang kambal na sina Matt at Mike Nieto.
Puwede pa itong maging pito kung mabibigyan ng pahintulot si Thirdy Ravena ng kanyang Japan B League team na San-En Neo Phoenix para makalaro sa Gilas dahil ngayon pa lamang sya makaaalis patungong Japan matapos magkaproblema sa visa.
"Now, we have some sense of direction, but we still don't know a lot of detail. The most important thing is trying to assemble the roster and coach Ryan and I particularly have been working on that pretty hard in the last month. But even that is still yet to be determined," ayon pa kay Baldwin.
"Really, what we want to do is finalize a roster as quickly as we can, and then we'll announce the roster, given that we're going to be going into a training camp and ultimately playing games in November," dagdag nito.