MANILA – The official training for Gilas Pilipinas’ preparation for the fifth window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers won’t begin until all players are accounted for in Seremban, Malaysia.
National coach Tim Cone said overseas Filipino players, including naturalized player Bennie Boatwright who is an import at the Chinese Basketball Association, won’t be available at least until Nov. 20.
The bulk of the team departs Nov. 21 for the Malaysian city, some 50 kilometers away from the capital Kuala Lumpur, giving the nationals just a week to practice together.
“Everybody else comes on the 19th or on the 20th. We won’t have a full team until we get down to Kuala Lumpur,” Cone told pba.ph.
“In my understanding, AJ (Edu), Q (Quentin Millora-Brown), and Mike Philips are all joining us in Kuala Lumpur directly from Japan. Dwight (Ramos) is coming in a day before, and most of the guys are coming in a day before.”
The players are coming from either the Japan B.League or the Korean Basketball League (KBL).
“We will not (train in Manila). We could have a practice but it would be with three or four players. It doesn’t make sense for us practicing with three or four players,” Cone said, referring to Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Juan Gomez De Liano and CJ Perez.
“The PBA guys, we could have practices with them, but again its only three or four players, and everybody else is from overseas. If we could get them (overseas players) earlier, we would practice earlier, but we’re not gonna get them until the 20th.”
The Philippines plays Syria on Nov. 27 and Iran two days later.
The 6-foot-10 Boatwright will make his national team debut as replacement of the injured Justin Brownlee.
Other players in the 12-man roster are KBL’s Rhenz Abando and Kevin Quiambao, and B.League’s Kai Sotto.
The Philippines is fifth in Group E at 4-4, one win behind Iran and Jordan, both toting 5-3 records.
Unbeaten Australia (8-0) paces the group, followed by New Zealand (6-2).
The PBA Governors’ Cup is taking a break from Nov. 9 to Dec. 3 to give way to Gilas’ bid for a slot in the 2027 Qatar World Cup.
The league resumes on Dec. 4 with the best-of-five Final Four pitting Barangay Ginebra against defending champion TNT and NLEX versus Converge. (PNA)
(SBP Facebook photo)
