East Asia teams eye five slots in Asia Cup

MANILA, Philippines - FIBA executive director for Asia Hagop Khajirian has confirmed that five countries from the East Asia sub-zone will qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut on Aug. 10-20 while only the winner of the SEABA Championships to be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on May 12-18 will represent the Southeast Asia sub-zone in the 16-nation conclave that will determine 14 qualifiers for the home-and-away eliminations leading to seven entries for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

Khajirian told The STAR in an email that East Asia will be represented in the FIBA Asia Cup by the top five placers in the sub-zone tournament in Nagano, Japan, on June 2-7. China, South Korea, Chinese-Taipei, Macau, Hong Kong and host Japan will participate in the competition. It was previously reported in the internet that only four tickets for East Asia were allocated for the FIBA Asia Cup.

Three slots were initially set aside for East Asia but two more tickets were awarded by virtue of South Korea and China finishing in the top five at the FIBA Asia Challenge in Tehran last September. The Philippines wound up ninth in Tehran. If a Southeast Asian country placed in the top five, it would’ve given an extra slot for the sub-zone in the FIBA Asia Cup.

So far, only eight teams are assured of playing in Beirut – host Lebanon, four qualifiers from West Asia, namely Iran, Jordan, Iraq and Syria, Gulf champion Qatar and debuting wildcards Australia and New Zealand. The other eight slots will be filled by five East Asia qualifiers and the winners of the SEABA, Central Asia and South Asia sub-zone tournaments. Central Asia will likely be represented by Kazakhstan and South Asia by India.      

Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said his focus at the moment is to win the SEABA Championships, nothing else. Once the Philippines earns the ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup, Reyes will begin mapping out plans to prepare for the Beirut competition. He said playing at the Jones Cup in Taipei on July 14-23 will be critical in getting ready for Beirut.

PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa said the other day the league will not play games in the second conference during the SEABA Championships. That will mean a one-week break. But Narvasa said the PBA will continue playing games if and when Gilas makes it to the FIBA Asia Cup.

Narvasa also said once Reyes announces the Gilas pool of 15, he doesn’t foresee a problem in calling for full practices every Monday even before the release of the PBA players, who are not Gilas rookies. Under the terms of the Memorandum of Agreement between the SBP and PBA, the Gilas rookies will be released 60 days before the SEABA Championships begin on May 12. There is a proposal to release the other PBA players 30 days before the start of the tournament to give Reyes an extra 15 days to work with the pool of 15. The deadline to submit the 12-man lineup to FIBA Asia is 15 days before the competition begins.

Reyes will gather the Gilas pool of 25, including late entry Troy Rosario, to a three-day training camp starting today at Splendido Taal. The plan is to trim the pool to 15 after the camp. 

The slot for a naturalized player is reserved for Andray Blatche who is finishing his playing obligations with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association. The Flying Tigers are playing Liaoning in the best-of-seven semifinals. Last Friday, Xinjiang won Game 1, 118-93, with Blatche compiling 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists. If Xinjiang makes it to the finals and the best-of-seven series goes the full route, the last game will be on April 16. Reyes said he is arranging for Blatche to fly to Manila directly from China.