Gilas lineup not cast in stone

MANILA, Philippines - The promise is the 12-man lineup that represented the Philippines at the FIBA-Asia Championships in Manila last August will be in Spain for the FIBA World Cup on Aug. 30-Sept. 14 next year but nobody is guaranteed to play in the 24-nation tournament, keeping the door open for Gilas coach Chot Reyes to make changes in the roster.

Aside from the 12 players, reserve Beau Belga is included in the traveling party along with Reyes and his coaching staff of Joseph Uichico, Norman Black and Josh Reyes. While there are no guarantees, players expected to suit up in Spain include the only Filipino in the last FIBA-Asia Championships’ Mythical Five Jayson Castro and naturalized citizen Marcus Douthit. Others in the Gilas team that took second place in the tournament were Jimmy Alapag, Jeff Chan, Gary David, Gabe Norwood, Larry Fonacier, Japeth Aguilar, Marc Pingris, L. A. Tenorio, Ranidel de Ocampo and JuneMar Fajardo.

Among the players who could make a strong case for inclusion in the team are Marcio Lassiter, Greg Slaughter, Arwind Santos, Sonny Thoss, Kelly Williams and Jay Washington.

“I’m open to additions to the pool,” said Chot Reyes yesterday. “But I’m hesitant to name anyone pending approval from the PBA Board. As of now, we can only start full training with the complete team on Aug. 15 unless the two finalists of the last conference do not have Gilas members in which case the complete team can start by Aug. 1.”

The available period for training is extremely short. National teams usually prepare for a tournament like the FIBA World Cup two to three months. For Gilas, it could be anywhere between two weeks to a month without the benefit of an international boot camp. Gilas had a two-month training period for the FIBA-Asia Championships and gained invaluable experience in camps in Lithuania and New Zealand.

“We cannot play in any pre-World Cup tournaments because there are only one-week breaks in between PBA conferences,” Reyes continued. “We will begin Mondays only practices after the first conference finals in mid-February. No foreign training, no tune-up tourneys as there are only two weeks from the time the PBA ends and the World Cup begins on Aug. 30.”

From Spain, Gilas will compete at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sept. 19-Oct. 4. In Spain, each of the 24 participating teams is guaranteed to play five games. The 24 entries are bracketed in four groups of six apiece. The draw will be held in Barcelona on Feb. 3. The preliminaries are scheduled on Aug. 30-Sept. 4 in four different venues in Bilbao, Granada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Seville. The last two placers in each group will be struck out after the preliminaries and the 16 survivors will play knockout games on Sept. 6 and 7 with four contests in Madrid and another four in Barcelona. The eight winners advance to battle in the knockout quarterfinals on Sept. 9 and 10, two in Madrid and two in Barcelona. The four survivors move on to the semifinals with the first pairing on Sept. 11 in Barcelona and the second in Madrid on Sept. 12. The losing semifinalists will dispute the bronze medal in a playoff on Sept. 13 in Madrid and the winning semifinalists clash for the world title on Sept. 14 in Madrid.

From the finals of the FIBA World Cup to the start of the Asian Games in Incheon, the period is only five days. So if Gilas stays in Spain until the championship match, it will likely travel straight to Incheon from Madrid.

Reyes said nothing is certain on future plans to recruit a naturalized player. Douthit, 33, is signed up to the end of the Asian Games. “We are open to Europeans as naturalized players but the problem is, I’d like them to practice with the national team before making a final decision,” he said. “However, given the current set-up, this is not doable, hence the difficulty.”

Of the 24 playing slots in Spain, only four are still vacant. FIBA will announce the four wildcards in an “attribution” decision during the Central Board meeting on Feb. 1-2 in Barcelona. The wildcard system was introduced in 2006 with Italy, Puerto Rico, Serbia-Montenegro and Turkey gaining entry. In 2010, four countries from 14 applicants were given wildcard tickets, namely, Lithuania, Germany, Lebanon and Russia. The next World Cup will be the last tournament with wildcards as in 2019, the FIBA conclave will expand to 32 qualifying teams.

The 15 countries applying for wildcards in the Spain competitions are Greece, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, China, Germany, Nigeria, Italy, Canada, Venezuela, Israel, Finland, Poland, Qatar and Bosnia-Herzogovina. Each country had to pay the equivalent of P30 million to submit an application. The 20 countries assured of playing in Spain are (with FIBA rankings) No. 1 USA, No. 2 Spain, No. 3 Argentina, No. 4 Lithuania, No. 8 France, No. 9 Australia, No. 11 Serbia, No. 13 Slovenia, No. 15 Angola, No. 16 Croatia, No. 17 Puerto Rico, No. 19 New Zealand, No. 20 Iran, No. 24 Mexico, No. 26 Dominican Republic, No. 31 Korea, No. 34 Philippines, No. 41 Senegal, No. 45 Ukraine and No. 46 Egypt.