By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Gilas Pilipinas lineup for the Southeast Asian Games is now nearly complete after head coach Norman Black confirmed the addition of Thirdy Ravena and UAAP stars Kymani Ladi of Ateneo and Mike Phillips of La Salle to the pool.
The three will be joining the first eight players announced as part of the national team for the biennial meet, leaving just one more slot which Black hopes to use to get a big man to complete the lineup.
“We actually have 11 guys that made it. We have 12 but I’m leaving the last slot open because I am trying to recruit another big guy because Thailand have big guys that can play well so we have to have a lineup that can match up” said Black in an interview with the Power and Play with Kom Noli Eala program on Saturday, Oct. 18.
So far, joining Ladi and Phillips in the frontline are naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame. Other players named to the pool are Ray Parks Jr., Matthew Wright, Dave Ildefonso, Jason Brickman, Veejay Pre, and Remy Martin.
The bigger concern for Black, however, was whether the SEAG organizing committee would change the eligibility rules from ‘passport only’ to adapting the FIBA rules.
As things stand, according to SEAG chef de mission Dr. Raul Canlas, the ‘passport only’ rule is the one to be applied by Thailand, although there have been news that FIBA is encouraging the SEA Games to adapt to its rules.
Black stressed that the team was formed with the rule requiring players to only present their Philippine passports, in mind, thus, having it changed to the FIBA eligibility rules, which required players to obtain their passport before the age 16, would pose big problems for the national teams.
“I’m just hoping they do not change this late in the day and I say that because we made our pool based on the first rule,” said Black.
“We have a lot of players (FIBA eligible) mostly in the PBA, who are not being commissioned to play with the national team in SEA Games so those guys will be completely out. We won’t be able to recruit them,” he furthered.
“Then we take away some of the guys who did not take their passports before age 16, now we are down to five, six players,” he added.
The Gilas SEAG team is expected to convene three weeks before the biennial meet as it aims to continue its dominance in the region by bagging its 20th gold medal in the Bangkok edition set in December.
