Gilas revs up Jones Cup preparations; Fmr. pool members Jonathan Grey, Bradwyn Guinto watch

Sixteen players from the Gilas Pilipinas pool were present on Monday evening as the National Team revs up its preparations for the upcoming 2017 William Jones Cup. The Taiwan invitational tournament begins on Saturday, July 15.

Leading Monday night’s cast is Mac Belo, who is attending his first full contact practice with Gilas. He had surgery from a torn meniscus last April.

Joining Belo are batchmates Kevin Ferrer, Matthew Wright, Jiovani Jalalon, Von Pessumal, Carl Cruz, Almond Vosotros, Mike Tolomia, Ed Daquioag, and Fonzo Gotladera. Gotladera had been out for the last three practices.

New cadets Kiefer Ravena, Raymar Jose, Bobby Ray Parks, Jr., and Kobe Paras were present, as well as Jeron Teng, who’d had a game early in the evening with the Flying V Thunder. Jones Cup reinforcement Mike Myers also beefed up Monday’s session.

Christian Standhardinger was on his way to the Meralco Gym as of publishing.

Only Baser Amer and Troy Rosario were absent from the SEA Games line-up, as Amer had practice with club team Meralco Bolts earlier in the day, while Rosario had just finished his commitments with mother team TNT Katropa last night.

An interesting observer was Jonathan Grey. The product of College of Saint Benilde was the Meralco Bolts’ PBA veteran player in the pool but was traded to the Globalport Batang Pier last May. He was replaced by Amer.

UPDATE: At around 9:10 in the evening, former Gilas pool member Bradwyn Guinto also arrived. Guinto, Grey’s teammate in Globalport, was replaced by Kevin Alas in the pool.