Blatche back to US, attends to sick mom

TAIPEI – In another blow on Gilas Pilipinas’ FIBA Asia Championship buildup, Andray Blatche spent only a night here and had to rush home to the United States to be with his sick mother as they attend the funeral of a departed uncle.

Blatche flew out a few hours before the start of the 2015 Jones Cup, an important part of Gilas’ preparation for the regional Olympic qualifier set Sept. 23-Oct. 3 in Changsha, China.

The 6-foot-10 naturalized player may rejoin his teammates here next weekend and may play only one or two games at the most.

“At the risk of sounding like we are premeditating excuses, we have been snake-bit,” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin on the latest problem faced by the team.

“But that’s life. We have to keep better with whoever we are, whoever we have, cross our fingers and hope for the best,” he added.

With the non-availability of a number of PBA stars plus the absence now of Blatche, Gilas goes through a crucial part of its FIBA Asia buildup with only 15 hopefuls plus backup naturalized player Moala Tautuaa.

Baldwin, however, stressed they will still stay focused and work hard to achieve their mission in the Taipei meet that started in earnest yesterday afternoon.

“The team is very determined to prove everybody wrong and go against the seeming bad luck that has gone our way,” said Baldwin.

“We want to win every game, but the priority is to keep improving; to see us play with fighting spirit, be tactically more comfortable with our system,” Baldwin also said.

“We need to learn a bit about Iran, Korea and Japan – the teams that we’re playing (in the FIBA Asia). It’s important that we’re here and important that we do a good job while we’re here,” he added.

Blatche will be spending a few days in the US, wanting to be close with his sick mother as they travel from Carolina to New York.

It’s surely a setback on Blatche’s bid to get back to shape. He’s overweight when he reported in the Gilas camp last Aug. 3.

“It’s out of everybody’s control. It definitely doesn’t help us, doesn’t help him on the improvements that he is getting,” said Baldwin.

“He’s better, but he’s not really what he was last year. But I can’t fault him for what he has done since he got here. Hopefully, when he’s in the States, he’ll do some things (to continue improving),” Baldwin added.