FROM 12, coach Tim Cone’s Gilas Pilipinas Men will now work with an expanded 16-man pool for next month’s FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Quentin Millora-Brown has received his first call-up after his reclassification as a local player while Kai Sotto, though still recovering from ACL, has been reinserted into Gilas’ roster for the back-to-back opening window matches against Guam on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1.
Mr. Cone has also tapped naturalized player Ange Kouame and guard RJ Abarrientos to join QMB, Mr. Sotto and the core mainstays Justin Brownlee, Calvin Oftana, Chris Newsome, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Dwight Ramos, CJ Perez, Japeth Aguilar, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, Jamie Malonzo and AJ Edu in the training crew.
“Continuity is still the main priority of coach Tim Cone but we saw it fit to add a couple of pieces to the training pool,” Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio said in a statement.
“Obviously, Justin (Brownlee) will still be the top choice in terms of having a naturalized player in the lineup but we need to take advantage of actually having multiple naturalized players.”
Messrs. Kouame and Abarrientos won’t be starting from scratch actually as they had attended Gilas training camps previously.
As for Mr. Millora-Brown, Mr. Cone himself shared that the team has already started work to get the 6-foot-10 big man who is in Japan acquainted with their system.
“We’ve been communicating with him and he’s working with Patrick Partosa, our analytics and video guy. They’re sending videos back and forth, triangle stuff, so he can probably get a head start,” said Mr. Cone.
Gilas is expected to report to camp 10 days before the opening road match against Guam. The PBA will have a break in Philippine Cup action from Nov. 17 to Dec. 4 to free up the league’s stars for Gilas duties. — Olmin Leyba