New Gilas, same dream

MANILA, Philippines — The road to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will make a stop in South Korea as Gilas leaves Manila for Seoul this afternoon to play two exhibition games in Suwon on Friday and Sunday before departing for Japan. The players include Robert Bolick, Adrian Nocum, Don Trollano, Brandon Bates, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, RJ Abarrientos, Justin Arana, Justine Baltazar, Sedrick Barefield, Jerrick Ahanmisi and Zavier Lucero.

Coach Tim Cone said Justin Brownlee is a possibility to join the squad but it’s nothing definite. He ruled out Jason Perkins, named in the initial 30-man pool, due to injury. Among the players who were on the 14-man pool for the fourth FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying window, only Baltazar, Arana and Abarrientos were retained. Caelan Tiongson would’ve been on the roster but lacks documents to comply with eligibility requirements.

The team started practice at the San Miguel Corp. facility in Pasig two weeks ago with Gilas assistant coaches Richard del Rosario, Jong Uichico and Josh Reyes supervising the workouts while Cone focused on the FIBA window. The Asian Games team had two scrimmages with the FIBA team, splitting the outcomes.

Missing in Cone’s staff for the Asian Games will be Sean Chambers who was on the bench for the FIBA window. “I believe our team will do really well in Japan,” said Chambers. “I was impressed with Nocum in the two scrimmages. I was honored that Coach Tim gave me a chance to design a play right before halftime in the Iran game. It’s impressive that Coach Tim is empowering his coaching staff to have an impact.” Cone’s trust in his staff was also reflected in designating Del Rosario, Uichico and Reyes to work with the Asian Games pool during the FIBA window.

Gilas takes Korean Air flight KE622 at 12:20 p.m. today to arrive in Seoul at 5:25 p.m. The tuneup games with the South Korean national team are set in Suwon, about 30 kilometers south of Seoul. The arena is the Suwon KT Sonicboom homecourt.

Gilas is in Group C with China, Bahrain and Kazakhstan in the Asian Games. First game will be against Bahrain on Sept. 11 then it will be Kazakhstan on Sept. 12 and China on Sept. 14. The other teams are Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia in Group A and Iran, Jordan, Chinese-Taipei and Qatar in Group B.