17-man pool bared; Aguilar makes list

MANILA, Philippines - The core of PBA Philippine Cup three-peat champion Talk n Text as expected made up the bulk of players named to the 17-man pool that will undergo an extensive training in pursuit of a World Cup berth in the coming FIBA Asia Championship.

Kelly Williams, Jimmy Alapag, Ranidel de Ocampo, Jayson Castro, Ryan Reyes, Larry Fonacier and Jarred Dillinger lead the cast that includes naturalized player Marcus Douthit, Ginebra’s LA Tenorio, San Mig Coffee’s Marc Pingris, Petron’s Junmar Fajardo, Alaska’s Sonny Thoss, Rain or Shine’s Gabe Norwood and Jeff Chan, Globalport’s Gary David and Japeth Aguilar and 7-foot-1 cadet player Greg Slaughter.

Aguilar was the surprise name in the list considering he’d never been a part of Gilas Pilipinas II’s previous international engagements. The young 6-foot-9 player also had his little spat with the national coach over the playing time the former got from the latter at Talk n Text.

Apparently, Aguilar got the slot intended for Arwind Santos.

“Everyone on the list has been informed. We asked them whether they’re willing to be part of the pool without the assurance of making the final lineup. Everybody said yes,” said national coach Chot Reyes.

Reyes bared the makeup of his training pool moments after the PBA board of governors formally approved a proposal to revise the league calendar to give the Nationals window time to prepare for the regional world qualifier set Aug. 1-11 at the MOA Arena in Pasay.

The third conference was rescheduled to a date after the FIBA Asia event while the second conference was again adjusted, opening an added period of one week on the final stage of Gilas Pilipinas’ buildup for the Asia meet.

The training pool starts training on Monday with Reyes announcing his Final 12 on July 1.

Preparation goes full blast after the PBA Commissioner’s Cup with Gilas Pilipinas pitching camp in Lithuania on June 2-16, playing in an invitational tourney at home by the end of June, competing in the Jones Cup on July 6-16 and embarking on a nationwide tour on July 20-25.

“As soon as the players become available, we shall practice more regularly with the target date of May 25 being the first day of full team practice,” said Reyes.

A week later, the Nationals fly to Lithuania where they work for 12 days under a former Lithuanian national coach. During that period, Gilas Pilipinas will also play tune-up matches with six top Lithuanian ballclubs.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas will then invite Middle Eastern teams to a pocket international tourney with Gilas Pilipinas here in Manila.

In the final stage of their buildup, the national team plays a series of games against a PBA selection on a nationwide tour.

“Hopefully, it will put us in our sharpest shape on Aug. 1 when the FIBA Asia begins,” said Reyes.

Reyes is excited with the pool that he formed, saying it answers the needs that they’d identified earlier.

“We need to be very versatile. We can play up-tempo, we can go down low if we need to, and we have a lot of speed, quickness, athleticism and a lot of outside shooting. I think the lineup bears that,” said Reyes.

“I’m not worried about height. What’s important is that we have to have a lot of weapons. All our wingmen are great rebounders,” he also said.

Reyes stressed, though, that preparation is as important.

“We’re focusing on the preparations and I think the best preparation is to prepare as hard as we can. The goal is to make the Top 3 but the dream is to win it all. That should be the only thought in our mind otherwise why are we going through all these,” he said.