MANILA, Philippines -- Other than an extra warm body for Gilas Pilipinas in practice, coach Tab Baldwin was happy to see Fil-Tongan Moala Tautuaa join the national pool on Thursday, shaking off jetlag and most importantly making what he termed as a ‘sacrifice’.
“He’s (Tautuaa) another example of a kid who makes the sacrifice, which he really doesn’t have to. I’m so proud of him,” Baldwin told sports scribes, shortly after the conclusion of Thursday’s practice at the Meralco gym.
Baldwin noted that the wide-bodied Tautuaa’s basketball I.Q. was high, citing how fast to he was able to pick up the plays during his first practice with Gilas.
“It’s fantastic to see him out there. He did really great out there and our training was designed to be a review to help him get up to speed and he learned it real quickly,” added the 57-year-old national coach.
Tautuaa arrived on Wednesday afternoon after a month-long stay in the US, just shortly after his stint with Cebuana Lhuillier in the PBA D-League.
The former Chadron State alumnus, a consensus top rookie pick, will be coming in as a backup for naturalized player Andray Blatche, who joined the half court drills of Gilas briefly, before sitting it out for the last hour of practice.
Under Fiba rules, each country is only allowed to field in one naturalized player in a tournament.
Still, Gilas will have to make do with an injury-hit national pool that saw three players skipping practice.
Terrence Romeo is still at the hospital due to flu virus, while Ranidel de Ocampo’s return remains indefinite because of his hamstring injury.
Dondon Hontiveros, on the other hand, did not participate in practice due to a calf muscle strain.
The Cebuano hotshot only took a few minutes working on his shots.