MANILA, Philippines — The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas announced yesterday the appointment of Ronald Magsanoc as head coach of Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 men’s team to the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Magsanoc coached the 3x3 Men’s Team to the recently concluded Southeast Asian Games where PBA players Chris Newsome, Jason Perkins, Mo Tautuaa and CJ Perez won the gold. He also previously coached 3x3 teams to the 2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup in the Philippines, the 2018 FIBA 3x3 Challenger in Shanghai and the 2018 FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup in Xi An, China.
The FIBA 3x3 OQT, set March 18-22 in New Delhi, India will feature of 20 teams divided into four pools of five teams each. The Philippines is grouped in Pool C with Slovenia, France, Qatar and Dominican Republic. Each pool will play a single round robin with the top two teams moving to the knockout round. The top three teams will qualify to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Prospects for the team are the top-ranked 3x3 players led by Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol.
Dylan Ababou, Karl Dehesa, Leonard Santillan, Chris de Chavez, Gab Banal, Jaypee Belencion, Leo de Vera, and Ryan Monteclaro are the other top-ranked players who have long been training under Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3 commissioner Eric Altamirano.