Toroman ends tour of duty with Smart Gilas

MANILA, Philippines - Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Manny V. Pangilinan is now considering a local coach to handle the national team with Rajko Toroman still there serving as consultant.

“That’s an option. I offered that (to Toroman) and he’s studying that. I told him ‘take your time,’ we have two years to prepare,” said Pangilinan on his talk with the Serbian mentor Thursday.

“We had some post-mortem talk, taking about what can be done next. Meantime, my advice is for him to rest at home in Serbia. We’ll keep in touch. He’s scheduled to come back on Nov. 15 and we’ll take it from there,” Pangilinan also said.

Pangilinan, however, hinted at tapping a local to take over from Toroman even as the SBP chief acknowledged the Serbian mentor’s big contribution in the national team’s big improvement in the Asian meet.

There are speculatiosn that Chot Reyes would be the new national coach with his post at Talk n Text to be inherited by Ateneo coach Norman Black.

The Philippines improved four rungs up to fourth place in the last FIBA Asia Championship, narrowly missing a berth in the world Olympic qualifier in losing its last two games versus Jordan and South Korea.

“He (Toroman) had his contributions in the three and a half years he’s with us. We learned a lot,” said Pangilinan.

“I’m not a coach, but I formed certain distinct impression in Wuhan,” added Pangilinan, noting how smaller is the size of the Filipino players compared to their Asian rivals.

“Ang papayat ng players natin compared to the players from the Middle East. They’re big; they have big bones. We need stronger players, taller players (to match up with them),” Pangilinan said.

The telecommunication mogul, however, promised to work on things for the Nationals to fare even better in the next FIBA Asia tourney.

He mentioned their bid to host the tourney and continued partnership with the PBA.

“Of course, we have to prepare sooner or later. I’m glad the PBA will cooperate. They’re offering a pool of 16 players for the national team,” said Pangilinan.

SBP is again looking at a mix of young, talented amateurs and pro stars to form the national team for the 2013 Asian meet that will serve as qualifier for the 2014 world championship.

“We’ll look at possible names for our cadet team from the collegiate. Obviously, (Greg) Slaughter is there to form part of the team,” said Pangilinan.

“We’ve seen the national teams in Wuhan. It’s a combination of mature players or professionals and young collegiate graduates. You can’t have immature players for international competitions,” he added.