By JONAS TERRADO
Naturalization candidate Isaiah Austin, Kiefer Ravena and Jeron Teng headline the 12-man roster of the Chooks to Go Pilipinas team that will represent the country in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup which starts Friday in Chenzhou, China.
Chooks to Go management only announced the roster yesterday after coach Chot Reyes and management were forced to scramble for available players with several PBA cagers and Gilas members like Christian Standhardinger and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. unavailable for various reasons.
The Chooks to Go squad leaves today for the city located in Hunan province, hopefully with Austin and Ebondo as the two imports have yet to be issued their respective visas at press time. Andre Paras and Gab Banal have been listed as reserves in case that two won’t make the trip.
“The biggest challenge was the time,” Reyes said during yesterday’s sendoff hosted by Chooks to Go at Discovery Suites in Ortigas Center. “We’re very short on time and we have very limited players available because the PBA is on-going. And then we had injuries so that’s part of the challenge.
“But like I said, we’re used to this, and I think we have a pretty interesting team. We put together a pretty interesting team. Obviously, a lot is riding on the acquisition of a visa for Isaiah and Rod,” he added.
Ravena, playing in what could be his last international tournament as an amateur as he remains mum on plans to join next month’s PBA draft, believes the team has what it takes to at least qualify for the quarterfinals in Group A which includes India’s ONGC, Iran’s Petrochimi, Palestine’s Sareyyet Ramallah and Thailand’s Mono Vampire.
