Nats brace for double mission

MANILA, Philippines — Don’t be surprised to see a “Team FIBA” and “Team Asian Games” subgroups in coach Tim Cone’s Gilas Pilipinas program for its August and September gigs.

Player unavailability due to injuries, club commitments and other reasons forced Cone to adapt as the Nationals gear up for two major international sorties, the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers on Aug. 28 and 30 and the Asian Games in Japan from Sept. 10 to 20.

Cone’s regulars, a mix of PBA stalwarts led by the returning Justin Brownlee and overseas-based gunners but minus Kai Sotto, Quentin Millora-Brown and Mike Phillips, will handle the business of seeking crucial victories against Jordan and Iran in Group E of the WCQ later this month.

But with the likes of Dwight Ramos, AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao a no-go for the Asiad, it’s going to be an all-PBA crew also anchored by Brownlee shouldering the gold-retention bid in Nagoya.

“Yeah, we’re going to have two pretty much separate teams. One for the (FIBA)  window and one for the Asian Games,” said the veteran mentor.

“That’s pretty much the plan. None of the Japan or Korea-based players can play in the Asian Games. So we just decided that we would pretty much bring an all-PBA contingent for the Asian Games along with Justin.”

Cone submitted a 30-man pool to the Asiad organizers that included Gilas core members like Scottie Thompson, Juan Gomez de Liaño, RJ Abarrientos, Calvin Oftana, June Mar Fajardo, Cjay Perez and Chris Newsome, new faces like Robert Bolick, Adrian Nocum, Caelan Tiongson and Sedrick Barefield and naturalized players Ange Kouame and Bennie Boatwright.

Boatwright’s status, though, is dependent on whether he would secure his Philippine passport in time for the Games.

“We’re hoping that Bennie will be all right to play in the Asian Games. That looks very doubtful at this point. But we’re still holding on hope. But, aside from that, it’s going to be Justin and an all PBA team,” said Cone.

The FIBA and Asiad groups, according to Cone, will hold separate camps.

“We’re going to practice separately at this point. The plan is for me to handle the window until we get it done and then to transfer to the Asian team. In the meantime,  (assistant coaches) Richard (del Rosario), Josh (Reyes) and Jong (Uichico) will handle the Asian Games (group),” he said.

“The Asian Games team is going to Korea first to play two friendlies with the Korean national team,” said Cone. “But for the window, we don’t have anything scheduled at this point.”

The Philippines is bracketed with old rival China, Kazakhstan and Bahrain in Group C of the hoops preliminaries.

“Bahrain is a team that’s really, really improving. Kazakhstan, we’ve played them in the past, we know how tough they are. They’re a big team, they’re going to be a real threat. And obviously, China. We’ll see. We think we can put a pretty good team together so we’re hoping to go with that one,” said Cone.