Black eyes Fil-Am guard for SEAG five

MANILA, Philippines –  A high-leaping Fil-Am guard is being eyed for the Philippine team that will defend the men’s basketball title in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia in November.

Phl coach Norman Black said Chris Newsome, a 6-foot-2 sophomore at New Mexico Highlands University, will come over to seek his spot in the team, which will be gunning for its 15th SEAG cage title against what he described as improved rivals.

“He practiced with Ateneo the past school year and I can say he’s good, he really can jump and he’s very athletic,” Black said during yesterday’s Scoop sa Kamayan session.

Based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Newsome currently plays for the Cowboys in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, leading the squad to a 90-84 win over University of Colorado-Colorado Springs with 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in their most recent game. Newsome will relocate to the Philippines after the season and play for Ateneo by 2013.

Another Fil-Am, Youth Olympic Games veteran Ray Parks, looms as a hot prospect.

“He’s very impressive when he attended our first tryout last week, to think he’s only 17. He’s really way ahead of his age,” Black said of the son of many-time PBA Best Import Bobby Parks.

Considered shoo-ins for the team are four Smart Gilas Pilipinas mainstays, Japeth Aguilar, Greg Slaughter, Aldrech Ramos and skipper Chris Tiu. Top collegiate stars are also trying out, among them Nico Salva, RR Garcia, Calvin Abueva, Ian Sangalang, Lester Alvarez, Alex Nuyles, Kiefer Ravena, Tata Bautista and Jeric Teng.

Black said they plan to form a big pool of talents that will train together before most of them head back to their collegiate teams. They will return to the camp after the varsity leagues and then the pool will be trimmed down to 16-20 players, from whom the final 12 will be selected.

“We’ll try to get as much going in summer. Once the school year starts, we’ll probably meet once a week but after the UAAP/NCAA, we’ll train hard for six straight weeks,” Black said.

He vowed to whip the nationals into a well-trained, well-oiled crew since rivals like Thailand and Indonesia have already enhanced their games.

“We could never really take the competition for granted, especially considering we have the ABL now and Southeast Asian teams are already exposed to better basketball and have improved their basketball programs as a result,” said Black.

But the Filipinos’ vast talent will certainly be to their advantage, not to mention the pride of a champion. “I know we’ve been dominating this tournament for so long. I wanna make sure we continue to win and I don’t want to lose under my watch,” he said.