Reyes upbeat on Gilas' first assignments despite roster uncertainty

MANILA, Philippines — With less than a week before Smart-Gilas Pilipinas’ game against Japan, head coach Chot Reyes revealed on Saturday that he has not made up his mind regarding the final lineup.

"We really don’t know yet up to this point,” Reyes told the press during the national team’s send-off in a hotel in Ortigas. "We will make the final lineup the night before when the deadline is due.”

Gilas will be playing Japan in the first of the two meetings for this year’s FIBA World Cup Asian qualifier window. 

Reyes went on to reveal that the uncertainty is shared by his wards as well.

"They’ve been practicing twice a day since November 3 and they’re giving up their rest, their vacations. And there is no assurance that one person or one player in this pool that he will make up to the final roster. And yet they came here and offered to serve,” he said. 

"That is the final, most difficult sacrifice of players here,” Reyes added. Joining him in the presser were Raymond Almazan, Japeth Aguilar, June Mar Fajardo, Gabe Norwood, Allein Maliksi, Troy Rosario, Matthew Wright, Kiefer Ravena, Kevin Alas, Roger Pogoy, Mac Belo and Carl Bryan Cruz.

Jayson Castro and Calvin Abueva begged off from joining the affair due to back spasms and flu-like symptoms, respectively. Terrence Romeo, for his part, is still nursing a hurt knee, while Andray Blatche is on his way from China.

But Reyes was firm on assuring that his players will be in tip-top form come game time.

“[Ang] maipapangako lang namin sa inyo ay we will give our best and hopefully, the victory and win will take care of itself,” he said. "We’re just making sure that we are putting the work in and preparing hard as hard as we can.”

The veteran national team tactician said he likes his chances against the team’s first two assignments — the Japanese, whom they take on on the 24th, and then the Taiwanese, whom they tackle before the home crowd on the 27th at the Big Dome.

"I think we have a very good chance against Japan ... It’s really going to boil down to the main difficulty that we have in Japan is going to be the weather. It’s going to be cold and they have the familiarity and the crowd support. Secondly, if and when we decide to put Andre in the line-up, he will have essentially five practices with us and you know, those are the negatives of the situations,” he said.

 

"For Chinese-Taipei, we are going to play here so I like that situation. We’re both going to be coming from out of the country trips from our previous matches so we will have the homecourt advantage there. But the difference is Chinese Taipei has been together for a much longer than this Gilas. They are very familiar with each other,” he said. 

"Having said that, I like our chances,” Reyes closed.