Chot Reyes felt a sense of relief now that he and TNT can fully focus on their Gilas Pilipinas duty for next week’s FIBA World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.
The Tropang Giga on Friday night wrapped up their hectic PBA Governors’ Cup schedule with a 119-92 domination of defending champions Barangay Ginebra at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. It was their fourth game in eight days.
TNT had to go through such an arduous stretch as the league altered its schedule in a manner that would give the team some time to gear up for the global tournament since it will form the bulk of the national squad.
It won’t be any easy, too, after that tour of duty. They will only have a few days of rest before resuming their PBA campaign against Blackwater on March 4.
Photo by PBA Images
“I won’t hide it. It’s been a struggle, really,” the outspoken mentor admitted. “It’s been a huge challenge for me, the players, the coaching staff.
“I mean, after tonight, Gilas is going to have practice tomorrow. So these guys are going to come back on the court, and there’s really no rest for them. But at least now, we can focus on the job at hand in the next, this coming week.”
Gilas will only have five days of practice before the Qualifiers, and Reyes said that it would be the time when he and his staff would figure out the best possible lineup that could compete against the visiting nations.
The Filipino dribblers will face South Korea twice, barring any hitch to their participation as COVID-19 has unfortunately rocked the team heading into the meet. Then there’s New Zealand and India to mind as well.
“We still haven’t made up our mind who’s going to make any kind of final roster so now, we can put it our effort and my 100 percent focus on figuring out,” said the veteran internationalist, back at the helm after nearly four years.
“We just wanted to put in some fundamentals for the team, make sure we would be able to put in a competitive team for the window and now we’re going to look at the last five days of practice, as our final preparation for the task at hand.”
There isn’t any timeframe set as to when will the pool be reduced, although Reyes said that the composition will depend on the players’ health.
At present, Gilas has been hounded by injury woes, especially among the TNT players. Roger Pogoy remains out due to a calf strain, Poy Erram has just healed from back spasms, while Jayson Castro has shoulder issues.
“We’re going to see the next few days how the health of the players are. If we put a timeframe, we don’t want to put a kind of restriction on ourselves.
“We want to keep it open because like I said, we’ll find out in the next couple of days who’s in the best shape to go four games in five days. We’re keeping our options open in that sense,” Reyes explained.
The next five days, moreover, will also be maximized in shaping some of the original Gilas members into game form, according to Reyes.
Players from the previous program that are presently in Reyes’ pool are Thirdy Ravena, Dwight Ramos, Ange Kouame, Juan Gomez de Liano, Lebron Lopez, and Gilas draftees William Navarro, Jaydee Tungcab, and Tzaddy Rangel.
Except for those who have come from the B.League in Ravena and Ramos, the rest haven’t really had the chance to play games since last year that saw Gilas play in international meets from June-July. Even Juan Gomez de Liano has not played a game since
The last time Tab Baldwin’s Gilas played was in the King Abdullah Cup in Jordan last July. The squad that featured Kouame, Navarro, and Ravena failed to score a podium finish as they bowed to Tunisia in the battle for third, 68-80.
“These next five days are going to just be our ramping up, final preparations and getting ourselves mentally ready. Physically — except for the guys who played in Japan — most of the original Gilas guys are not in game shape at all
“They haven’t played since, I think their Jordan tournament last year,” Reyes disclosed. “It’s really a cramming session for them to get into game shape, into basketball shape.
“That’s our focus in the coming days.”
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