Philippines - Smart Gilas 5 gear up for more Fiba action
Three more tournaments are lined up for the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team before wrapping up its initial year of training for the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championship. Smart Gilas assistant coach Allan Gregorio said the national squad composed of collegiate standouts would compete in the tough Fiba-Asia Stankovic Cup on July 28-31 in Kunshan, China, a small city near Shanghai. After taking on the field in the Stankovic Cup, where the formidable teams in the Middle East normally compete, Smart Gilas will test its mettle against the best local professional ball clubs as guest squad in the PBA All-Filipino Cup in October.
From sports.inquirer.net
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Three more tournaments are lined up for the Smart Gilas Pilipinas National Team before wrapping up its initial year of training for the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championship.
Smart Gilas assistant coach Allan Gregorio said the national squad composed of collegiate standouts would compete in the tough Fiba-Asia Stankovic Cup on July 28-31 in Kunshan, China, a small city near Shanghai.
After taking on the field in the Stankovic Cup, where the formidable teams in the Middle East normally compete, Smart Gilas will test its mettle against the best local professional ball clubs as guest squad in the PBA All-Filipino Cup in October.
Finally, Gregorio said the Nationals would end the first of their three-year preparation for the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championships, the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics, by seeing action in the Southeast Asian Championship to be hosted by Manila in November.
The Southeast Asian Championship serves as the replacement for the Southeast Asian Games at the end of the year after basketball was removed from the calendar of events in the Laos meet.
With Smart Gilas on a two-month break, the collegiate players, composed of Far Eastern University's Mark Barroca, JR Cawaling and Aldrech Ramos, Santo Tomas U's Dylan Ababou, RJ Jazul and Rey Guevarra of Letran and Fil-foreign Greg Slaughter from University of Visayas, have been reactivated by their schools for the collegiate basketball season.
"We took a break to re-energize. We will regroup next month to prepare for some tournaments, foreign and local,'' said Gregorio, who will return to his head coaching chores with Smart Pampanga Buddies in Liga Pilipinas.
Team captain Chris Tiu, JV Casio, Jason Ballesteros and Mac Baracael also took a respite after the Smart Gilas finished a strong fifth in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup last month while American CJ Giles went back to the United States to join the NBA training camp.
Being eyed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas for naturalization, the 6-foot-11 Giles has impressed Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman and the rest of the field in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup as well.
Apart from Giles, Toroman is expecting US-based Japeth Aguilar, and Fil-foreign players Chris Lutz and Sean Anthony to join the team next month while hoping to secure the services of reigning UAAP MVP Rabeh Al-Hussaini of Ateneo after the collegiate season.
For the meantime, Toroman, who steered Iran to the 2007 Fiba-Asia Championship crown for a slot in the Beijing Olympics last year, has decided to go home to Belgrade, Serbia for a well-deserved rest.
"Coach Rajko will be away for three weeks to take a break,'' said Gregorio, one of the Toroman's five assistant coaches.
Toroman reportedly volunteered to do some scouting for Powerade Team Pilipinas, which will play in the Fiba-Asia Championship in Tianjin, China in August, but was turned down by national coach Yeng Guiao.
The Tianjin meet is the qualifying tournament for the 2010 Fiba-World Championships in Turkey while grabbing one of the top three seats in the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championships will earn the country a ticket to the 2012 London Olympics.