Douthit faces Giles in Fiba-Asia

MANILA, Philippines- Marcus Douthit will have a chance to prove that he deserves his stint as a naturalized player when he takes on Phl naturalization candidate CJ Giles at the start of the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup May 28 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

The 6-10 former Providence star goes up against Giles as the Filipinos collide with Al Ittihad of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia right in the opener of the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup.

Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman wants nothing but to top Group A consisting of the Giles-led Arab club team, the KL Dragons of Malaysia, the Duhok Sports Club of Iraq and the Applied Science University of Jordan, a lighter bracket compared to the Group A.

The other group, considered the “Group of Death,” is composed of defending back-to-back champion Mahram of Iran, reigning West Arab League and Lebanese titlist Al Riyadi of Lebanon, last year’s runner-up Al Rayyan of Qatar, Al Jalaa of Syria and Al Shabab of United Arab of Emirates.

“Our main goal is to at least be in the finals and get a chance to win the tournament,” said Toroman. “But first things first, we need to top our group because we don’t want to face the top three teams in the other group because they’re all strong.”

But against Al Ittihad, it’s going to be the Douthit-Giles showdown, which is set at 6 p.m., that should get most of the focus.

“Marcus is a very important part of the team, we’ll see what happens,” said Toroman about the much-awaited confrontation between Douthit and the high-leaping 6-10 Giles, who was initiallythe first player Smart Gilas eyed for naturalization that didn’t push through after things didn’t work out well for both.

“We’re aiming for a finals appearance at least and see what happens from there,” said Toroman. “We know the Filipino people are coming to watch and cheer for us and we don’t want to disappoint them.”

The Nationals are taking on the Dragons, who took the place of the FIBA-suspended Thailand Slammers, at 6 p.m.on May 29 before taking a rest the next day.

The Dragons are being coached by former NCAA mentor Ariel Vanguardia and will be reinforced by Americans Marcus Morrison and 6-10 Nakaiea Miller, who won the Best Import award in the recent ABL season, and Filipino imports Angel Raymundo, Patrick Cabahug and Rudy Lingganay.

Duhok of Iran, which will be played by Smart Gilas at 8 p.m. on May 31, will parade a pair of Americans, Brest Yee and Calben Kate.

The 36-year-old Yee saw action in the Saudi Arabia Premier League while the 24-year-old Kate played for Mahram Club in the Iranian Premier League.

The Filipinos, then undermanned with injuries to some key players, had already beaten Duhok in the group stages of last year’s Champions Cup in Doha, Qatar with the Iranian playing with a taller, bigger import--former NBA player 7-4 Priest Lauderdale.

It would be the Jordanians, who will parade 6-10 Brandon Kurtz, next at 8 p.m. on June 1.

Aside from Douthit, Smart Gilas will be beefed up by pro cagers Asi Taulava of Meralco and Dondon Hontiveros of Air21.

Toroman had hoped to get Kelly Williams, Jimmy Alapag and Ranidel de Ocampo of back-to-back PBA champion Talk n Text but they begged off to backstop the team in the nine-day event.

Still, the Gilas roster remains formidable with team captain Chris Tiu, co-skipper Mark Barroca, JV Casio, Mac Baracael, Marcio Lassiter, 6-9 Japeth Aguilar, seven-footer Greg Slaughter, Dylan Ababou, Chris Lutz and Aldrech Ramos.

Smart Gilas is seeing action in the annual event for the third straight time, reaching the quarters in Jakarta in 2009 and in Doha, Qatar last year where it lost to tall, more experienced Qatar and Lebanon squads.