Sidelights: Wynne out of national squad
TAIPEI – Burger King guard Wynne Arboleda is out of the RP team competing in the Fiba Asia championship in Tianjin, China although he’s playing well in the Jones Cup competition here.
Under the Fiba-Asia guidelines, PBA operations chief Rickie Santos said Arboleda can no longer be considered for the team since he’s not included in the pool submitted by the team last July 5.
Santos also said teams were asked to submit an initial list of players (with a maximum of 24) a month before the tourney. They will get their final 12 only from there.
Coach Yeng Guiao and his staff will have their deliberation tonight to determine the mix which could well give the country best shot at achieving its goal in the Asian meet.
Deadline for submission of lineup is tomorrow.
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Jong Uichico, coach of the RP team that narrowly missed the finals in the 2002 Busan Asian Games, is optimistic Powerade Team Pilipinas still has time to improve to be a contender in the Tianjin meet.
“It’s not yet panic time. Time is still on our side,” said Uichico. “The best lesson learned was our Italy experience. So close to the Busan Games, we went to Italy in the final stage of our preparation. We were beaten black and blue but it made us better in Busan,” Uichico said.
The Ginebra mentor believes all the Nationals need is to get used to coach Yeng Guiao’s system to be competitive.
“We won SEABA on sheer talent but SEABA is a lowly competition. This is practically our first international tournament. We have the talent but international tournament is more about system,” said Uichico. – Nelson Beltran
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