By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas has been grouped into Pool B of the men’s basketball tournament as it reverts back to the old format for the 32nd edition of Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia in May
The Gilas ‘Redeem Team’, eager to reclaim the lost gold, will have to go through Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar in the pool stage following the results of the official draw on Tuesday, April 18.
The top 2 teams in Pool B will then take on the two best teams from Pool A which is composed of defending champions Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and host Cambodia during the crossover semifinals.
The last edition of the biennial meet saw it veer away from its that format and adopted a single round-robin eliminations with the teams topping the standings, finishing in the podium.
Indonesia went on to bag the gold, denying Gilas a top finish for the first time in 31 years. The Indonesians swept the tournament capped by a huge 85-81 upset win over the Filipinos who settled for the silver.
The Nationals however have yet to get into a full groove of things when it comes to their preparations as the Chot Reyes-mentored squad struggle to get enough warm bodies for its training sessions.
With most of its members still seeing action in the ongoing 2023 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals, Gilas tried to make do with what they have as it ramps up the preparations with its first back-to-back practices this week.
Only 11 players attended the usual Monday training led by San Miguel Beer’s CJ Perez, Chris Ross and Marcio Lassiter along with Meralco’s Chris Newsome and Aaron Black, NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino and NLEX’s Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Sean Anthony, who was not part of the pool but presented himself to lend a hand to Gilas during its training.
Also present were collegiate standouts Mason Amos and brothers Ben and Michael Phillipps. All of the players, except Lassiter, also showed up for the next day’s practice.
Still, it was an improvement in terms of the number of attendees after Gilas was forced to cancel its training last week after only seven players confirmed their attendance.
Finals protagonists Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, Jeremiah Gray, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle and Jamie Malonzo of Ginebra and Mikey Williams, Poy Erram and Calvin Oftana of TNT are the pool members still seeing action in the Finals.
RR Pogoy is already out of the pool with a fractured finger while Japeth Aguilar remains questionable as he’s still recovering from a knee injury although already seeing brief action with the Kings.
