MANILA, Philippines — Christian Standhardinger can focus his attention with his PBA mother ball club San Miguel Beer as Andray Blatche has come in shape.
And national coach Yeng Guiao hopes they can get Blatche in better condition in the next few days with training with Gilas Pilipinas and with the NLEX Road Warriors.
“We’ll maximize his 10 days in the country. We’ll make good use of all his days here. On days that Gilas is off, he’ll practice with NLEX,” said Guiao, hoping to get Blatche in best shape possible as they play critical matches versus Qatar and Kazakhstan in the final window of the FIBA World Cup qualifier.
Team Phl must sweep those games late this month to have a shot at a ticket to the world joust in China from Aug. 31 to Sept. 15.
Teaming up with Blatche for the game against Qatar on Feb. 21 are Japeth Aguilar, Raymond Almazan, Mark Barroca, Jayson Castro, Poy Erram, June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Paul Lee, Gabe Norwood, Troy Rosario at Scottie Thompson.
After fully serving his FIBA suspension, RR Pogoy rejoins the team in the game against Kazakhstan on Feb. 24. Also a possible addition is Ateneo hotshot Thirdy Ravena.
But the No. 1 idea is to have Blatche back in great form.
Guiao is satisfied with what he saw in Blatche in a shoot-around session at the Meralco Gym Saturday morning.
“Visually, he’s ok. I see him working out with his shooting drills, he’s really skilled. The skills that he has are tailor-made for the system that we run. That’s good news for us. But I think we can get him in better shape in the next few days,” said Guiao.
“Match-up wise, I think Qatar and Kazakhstan do not have someone to match up against him one-on-one. So they have to send the double team or devise a way to control him in the low block. That’s exactly the idea why we got him in, to create openings for the other Gilas players,” Guiao also said.
During Blatche’s absence in the fourth and fifth windows of the qualifiers, Guiao alternately used Fil-foreign players Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle to fill the spot of a naturalized player.
Gilas went 1-3 in this period to drop to a precarious spot in Group F at 5-5, behind Australia (9-1), Iran (7-3) and Japan (6-4). Closely behind Team Phl is Kazakstan at 4-6. Out of the running in the group is Qatar at 2-8.