Six Ginebra players, four from San Miguel Beer and three from TNT KaTropa will make up the Philippine men’s basketball training pool to the coming SEA Games which the country will be hosting starting this November.
Putting premium on familiarity, PH team coach Tim Cone on Thursday tapped his star players LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson, Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, Stanley Pringle and Art dela Cruz in the pool.
Joining them are TNT KaTropa’s Jayson Castro, RR Pogoy and Troy Rosario, Christian Standhardinger, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer, Alaska’s Vic Manuel and Matthew Wright of Phoenix Fuel.
“We really quite of narrowed it down,” said Cone, who met with members of the league’s board of governors chaired Ricky Vargas of TNT.
Also present during the meeting was Samahang Basketboll ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio.
“Not only did we try to narrow it, we tried to come up with the idea of may be because of that short window we have, maybe we go with a team that I’m familiar with – Ginebra.”
“Go with six players from Ginebra and then we reinforce it,” added Cone, who coached the national team that bagged he bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games in Thailand.
Cone and the board initially deliberated with 50 professional and amateur players, then they trimmed it to 25 before cutting it 15.
Aguilar, Pogoy, Troy Rosario and Fajardo last played for Gilas Pilipinas under mentor Yeng Guiao that went winless in five games in the previous FIBA World Cup in China.
Cone said that having Ginebra’s core is patterned after the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan under coach Norman Black, whose former team SMB formed the nucleus of the national team.
That year, San Miguel won the PBA All-Filipino Conference, and as a result, led the formation of the national team to the Asian Games. However, due to injuries to key players, only three made it to the squad, guards Hector Calma and Ato Agustin, shooter Allan Caidic.
That team that placed fourth overall also had non-SMB players in Johnny Abbarientos, Kenneth Duremdes, Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera and Marlou Aquino.
Cone said that due to limited time, they have to do away with the tryout and selection process, and go straight to practice sessions with just a few cuts to make to finalize the 12-man roster.
“The reason we did that is, with limited practice, we really don’t have a whole lot of time to teach and tryout out, and get a lot of guys in,” said Cone. “We don’t just don’t have the time.”
Cone said that they considered adding or inviting college players but with both the NCAA and UAAP ongoing, he said it’s difficult to disrupt the schedule of the leagues and its players.
The once a week practice session of the national team will begin Monday at the Meralco gym in Quezon City. He also mentioned that it’s likely that he’ll bring his Ginebnra coaching staff to the national team.
Aside from Vargas and Panlilio, other board members present during the meeting are Northport’s Erick Arejola, Mamerto Mondragon of Rain or Shine, Rod Franco of NLEX, Robert Non of SMB, Rene Pardo of Magnolia, Dickie Bachmann of Alaska, Alfrancis Chua of Ginebra, Siliman Sy of Blackwater and Bobby Rosales of Columbian Dyip.
Unable to attend was Raymond Zorrilla of Phoenix Fuel. (Waylon Galvez)
