Chot Reyes names 16-man Gilas pool from PBA

MANILA, Philippines – Smart-Gilas national coach Chot Reyes revealed the players he wanted to represent the country in the FIBA-Asia Championship in August.

In a meeting with PBA Commissioner Chito Salud on Thursday, Reyes named his choices for the 16-man pool.  His blueprint is a team that has size without sacrificing quickness, versatile and can shoot from the outside.

Named in the backcourt are LA Tenorio of Brgy. Ginebra, Jayson Castro, Jimmy Alapag, Larry Fonacier and Ryan Reyes of Talk n Text and Gary David of GlobalPort.

Rain or Shine's Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan and another Talk n Text player in Jared Dillinger were chosen at the wings. The frontcourt duties will be shared by power forwards Ranidel de Ocampo and Kelly Williams also from Talk n Text, GlobalPort's Japeth Aguilar and San Mig Coffee's Marc Pingris while the tallest rotation for a Philippine team has been assembled to man the slot with 6-7 Sonny Thoss of Alaska,  Petron's rookie center 6-10 Junemar Fajardo and NLEX's 7-foot slotman Greg Slaughter, who will serve as back-up to naturalized Filipino center 6-10 Marcus Douthit.

With August only a few months away, Reyes opted for familiarity with seven players coming from his former team Talk n Text Tropang Texters, who are fresh from winning their third straight Philippine Cup title.

Curiously missing in the pool were superstars James Yap of San Mig Coffee, Arwind Santos of Petron and Mark Caguioa of Brgy. Ginebra.  

Reyes, however, said in earlier interviews that he is not forming an All-Star selection but a team with quick, versatile players, shooters and role players who are willing to do the dirty work.  The 16-man pool will still be trimmed down to 12 players for the FIBA-Asia Championship that will give the top three teams tickets to the FIBA-World Championship in Spain next year.