Andray Blatche immediately buckled down for work with Gilas Pilipinas as the team resumed its preparations for the FIBA World Cup, Monday evening at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City.
The naturalized 6-foot-10 slotman, who arrived in the country lasr Saturday, is part of the 14 players who attended the session. Blatche arrived an hour prior to the 6:00 PM call time.
Blatche joined Gabe Norwood, Kiefer Ravena, Roger Pogoy, Mark Barroca, Raymond Almazan, Beau Belga, Marcio Lassiter, Matthew Wright, and young stalwarts CJ Perez and Robert Bolick.
Paul Lee, June Mar Fajardo, and Troy Rosario — who is reportedly nursing injuries — were in attendance as well, but they were clad in street clothes and just watched the practice on the sidelines.
Centers Poy Erram and Japeth Aguilar were absent.
Gilas head coach Yeng Guiao is back after missing last Thursday’s practice, where the team only held a 35-minute walkthrough of their offensive sets before wrapping it up.
With Blatche finally around, Guiao and his deputies could now decide which players will be part of the 15-man pool that they will strictly work with leading up to the global basketball spectacle.
Part of the Filipino dribblers’ preparations are their trip to Spain and their pair of tuneup games with Australian ball club Adelaide 36ers. All of these activities will take place in August.
