Guiao taps young guns

Ravena, Bolick, Perez Join Gilas practice

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas men’s basketball coach Yeng Guiao has called in the youth brigade, led by Kiefer Ravena, the top prospect to replace Jayson Castro, to beef up the FIBA World Cup-bound nationals.

Guiao added his NLEX player Ravena, who was cleared to start training yesterday prior to the official end of his 18-month FIBA suspension on Aug. 24, as well as rookies Robert Bolick of NorthPort and CJ Perez of Columbian Dyip, into the pool that’s holding twice-a-week practices for the world meet.

The Phl 5 mentor said bringing in the young guns not only adds depth to the talent pool but also starts their international exposure in earnest. 

“Although we’ll just be 12 in the regular lineup, we’ll need one or two as backup in case there will be injuries, like what happened to Raymond Almazan during our practice in Astana (for the World Cup qualifiers). Things can happen, so if you only have exactly 12, one or two slots might be wasted, that’s why we need them,” said Guiao.

“Of course, I do not discount that they can break into the regular (final 12) lineup once we get started with them. But basically, we’re trying to put extra bodies just in case anything out of our control happens,” he added.

Guiao further said: “And for me, if we’ll send pros to the Southeast Asian Games, they would be good candidates. We can start their international training exposure and prepare them now, they can step in if guys like Paul (Lee) and (Mark) Barroca want to take a break if Gilas will also be the ones to be tapped to the SEA Games.”

Ravena, according to Guiao, is virtually locked in for the slot left by two-time FIBA Asia top guard Castro, who opted out of Gilas to focus on his family.