Gilas in top shape, takes 1st workout

INCHEON – Marc Pingris makes a clean pass to Japeth Aguilar, who catches it and dunks. Misses. Pingris takes a nice shot near the basket. Misses and gets sacked in the nose by an opposing player.

It’s all right, it’s only a practice game, and all 12 members of Smart Gilas are going through their first workout here quite seriously, shouting instructions to one another on the offensive end, bonding together with their returning center

“We are only continuing what we did in Manila, where we did two practices before we came here,” said national coach Chot Reyes during the team’s practice round yesterday, a good two hours, at the Sondo High School practice gym, about 30 kilometers from the Athletes Village.

“We’re trying to make the players get used to the ball,” said Reyes, whose boys didn’t have a decent workout at home either as they rested from the rigors of the World Cup and did some aborted training at the height of the supertyphoon.

The coaching staff, complete with assistant coaches Ryan Gregorio, Jong Uichico,  Joshua Reyes and consultant Tab Baldwin, minus Norman Black, gave personalized instructions to players during a scrimmage while coach Reyes watched intently from the sidelines – not shouting out instructions or giving out wild signals as he would do at the height of a regular game.

After the one hour scrimmage between the White and Blue teams, the players did another 45-minute shoot-around, tall players JunMar Fajardo and Pingris helping each other out on one of the sideline rings, Gabe Norwood defended by Baldwin on the other, while Marcus Douthit does perimeter shooting with help of teammates.

Over on the other court Jeff Chan perfects his shot from the quartercourt, while Ranidel de Ocampo shoots six or more from his favorite spot, from the baseline and the three-point area.

Jimmy Alapag, showing no signs of fatigue, gets tips from Baldwin on how to attack the hoops from the dead center, using a left-handed dribble, while LA Tenorio does routing shooting from the quartercourt.

Jay Washington quietly does some workout on his own as reserve or 13th man of the Gilas five.

“Jared (Dillinger), Jimmy (Alapag) and Marc (Pingris) are doing fine in practice after their injuries but we can only if they are in peak form during the game,” said Reyes.

All the players from the World Cup have been banged up from four run-and-gun games they went through in the group stages. The players had to take a complete rest for two to three days before they recharged for the Asian Games.

With their coach giving them a clean bill of health, the Gilas stars are ready for the Asian war.