Four new players headed by Fil-Am Gabe Norwood have joined the RP men’s basketball team following its recent return from a successful sortie in Singapore where they beat the all-professional Singapore Slingers.
Norwood, part of the RP squad that finished ninth in the Olympic qualifiers early this year in Tokushima, Japan, and Elmer Espiritu of Pharex have started training with the team Saturday night at the Arena in San Juan.
Mac Baracael of Mail and More and Erick Rodriguez of Toyota Balintawak yesterday joined the Harbour Centre-backed squad in its two-day team building session in scenic Tagaytay as part of its build up for the 24th Southeast Asian Games set Dec. 7-13 in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
“We’ll spend two days here trying to get to know each other more,” RP coach Junel Baculi yesterday told The STAR.
Baculi, however, stressed they have yet to finalize the composition of the 12-man team that will be fielded in Thailand where the Filipinos hope to regain the gold medal it last won in the 2003 Hanoi Games.
“We’re still evaluating, maybe we’ll announce it before we leave on Dec. 3 or during the managers meeting there,” said Baculi.
Even without the new players, the Nationals have shown they could win the SEAG gold on their own after they swept all their four tune-up games against the Singapore national team, a US Navy selection, a European selection and the taller Singapore Slingers.
Except for the Slingers game, all were won in lopsided fashion.
The win over the Slingers, a team backed by Australians, Americans and a 6’11” Macedonian competing in the Australia-based National Basketball League, redeemed the Nationals after getting a flak back home for failing to live up to expectations.
“The team showed great chemistry in Singapore, they showed heart, they want to prove something,” said Baculi.
Fil-Am Alex Crisano finally managed to keep his cool and stayed in the games long enough to help the team hold their own inside.
UAAP MVP Jervy Cruz was a revelation particularly in the Slingers match where he had 22 points and 12 rebouns while Beau Belga, Allan Salangsang and Chad Alonzo were as solid as Crisano inside.
Jason Castro was his usual prolific self in Singapore while Al Vergara, Boyet Bautista and Eugene Tan were rock solid in handling the backcourt chores for the Nationals.
Shooters Jonathan Fernandez, Chris Tiu, Jeff Chan, Eric dela Cuesta and Patrick Cabahug delivered when the team needed them to that should make the selection process for the coaching staff a difficult task.
“It’s a pleasant problem,” said assistant coach Louie Alas, who steered the team the gold in the 1999 Brunei Games. “Everyone deserves to be in the team because they’ve worked hard and sacrificed a lot from the start.”