Smart Gilas faces big test in Jones Cup

TAIPEI – After a short flight from Manila, members of Smart Gilas shook off jetlag with a light workout before settling in their hotel rooms here yesterday, looking to further enrich themselves with experience on international play in the 2010 William Jones Cup set to start tomorrow.

Coach Rajko Toroman said the Jones Cup is a good gauge to see how far they have gone in their Asian Games buildup, considering four top teams in the region are entered in the weeklong event.

Iran is going for a title repeat while also preparing for the forthcoming Guanzhou Asiad like Smart Gilas.

Host Chinese Taipei, Lebanon and Japan are the other national teams playing in the competition joined in by the Taipei All Stars and Australia’s under-23 Crocs.

The Filipinos are excited to compete as they came here with a lineup that is likely to be fielded in Guangzou.

Naturalization candidate Marcus Douthit leads the team that includes Fil-foreigners Marcus Lassiter, Chris Lutz and Greg Slaughter and homegrown players Chris Tiu, Mark Barroca, JV Casio, Mac Baracael, Japeth Aguilar, Rabah Al-Husseini, Dylan Ababou, Rey Guevarra, Jason Ballesteros and RJ Jazul.

Eleven players from this roster plus Talk n Text forward Kelly Williams are being eyed for the Asian Games in November.

“This Jones Cup is tough but exciting competition. We’ll see how we’re doing in training. It will give us a good idea where we are at the moment,” said Toroman.

“We are up against four Asian contenders and that makes me excited,” Toroman added. “Some of our players have recovered from injuries and we now have Douthit. We’ll now see how we fare with this team.”

Douthit, a product of Providence U, will be playing his second tournament with Smart Gilas after the recent MVP Cup in Manila won by the RP training team versus Jordan.

“Marcus is a good player but I want to see more from him. I want to see him play with more enthusiasm,” said Toroman.

The Serbian mentor said they will try to win as many games possible but stressed the main goal is to have a good training for the Asian Games.

“The main thing is to prepare ourselves and see what kind of competition we’ll face in Guangzhou,” said Toroman.

Smart Gilas opens its campaign versus the Taiwan All Stars at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

After an expected winning start, Smart Gilas then goes through tough challenges versus Iran on Thursday, the Crocodiles Friday, Taiwan on July 18, Japan on the 19th then Lebanon on the 20th.

It’s a single-round-robin affair with the best record automatically winning the championship.