MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas turned to young tower Kai Sotto to fortify the middle of its injury-hit pool for the fifth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers next week.
Sotto, who recently scored a season-high 16 in Adelaide’s 99-70 loss to the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian National Basketball League, was tapped to return amid the sidelining of June Mar Fajardo to a throat injury.
The 7-foot-3 Sotto leads the 20-man preliminary pool assembled by the Gilas coaching staff for the coming road games against Jordan on Nov. 10 and Saudi Arabia on Nov. 13.
Japeth Aguilar, Poy Erram, naturalized player Ange Kouame and collegiate star Carl Tamayo join Sotto in the frontline while Francis Lopez, Jamie Malonzo, William Navarro, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, Ray Parks, CJ Perez, RR Pogoy, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos, Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, Arvin Tolentino and Scottie Thompson make up the backcourt and wings spots.
Fajardo is part of the initial roster but the six-time PBA MVP is unlikely to be ready to go after undergoing surgery for a laryngeal fracture three weeks ago.
Gilas coach Chot Reyes said it would have been nice to see the troika of Fajardo, Sotto and Kouame in cahoots for the first time.
“Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen because of the reality of injury,” Reyes said during yesterday’s Power and Play program of Philippine Sports Commissioner chairman Noli Eala on Radyo Singko.
According to Reyes, Gilas will take advantage of the brief PBA and UAAP break to gather the local-based pool members for full, consecutive practices on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 and 2. The pool has had once-a-week sessions every Monday prior to this.
The Japan B. League players are expected to start arriving by Tuesday, giving them about a week’s worth of training time. Sotto, for his part, is expected to fly straight to Jordan after his Nov. 6 commitment in the NBL.
“Doon (Jordan) na kami mabubuo. We’ll have three full days – we’re looking at Nov. 7, 8, and 9 – where we can finally practice a full complete team for the Nov. 10 game against Jordan, which we all know is a very tough team,” said Reyes.
Despite the training limitations, Reyes is upbeat about this Middle East sortie.
“I really like the enthusiasm and dedication in our Monday-only practices. I think we’re getting stuff done. And anyway, the guys from Japan, they already know the things we’re doing and Kai knows a lot of the things we’re doing already. So hopefully, those three days will be enough for us to be able to prepare the best we can for Jordan,” he said.
With the unavailability of NBA star Jordan Clarkson, who suited up in Gilas’ Window 4 assignments against Lebanon and Saudi, Ivorian-born Kouame takes the mantle as naturalized import.
Aside from Kouame, Gilas is eyeing to add Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee and TNT’s Cam Oliver to its pool of naturalized mainstays moving forward.