By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas interim head coach Tim Cone was pretty much satisfied with the team that he had formed for the 19th Asian Games that is set to start next week in Hangzhou, China.
The multi-titled mentor has already unveiled his initial 12-man lineup, which according to him, would allow the Nationals to be versatile enough to compete against the size of China and other middle eastern teams like Iran, Lebanon and Jordan and keep up with the pace against quick and great shooting teams like Japan and Korea.
World Cup players Scottie Thompson, RR Pogoy, June Mar Fajardo, and Japeth Aguilar form the nucleus of the squad along with pool members Calvin Oftana, Chris Newsome, and naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame.
Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Mo Tautuaa and Jason Perkins were the new faces for the Asiad squad.
“I’m good with what we got. We got a good balance of size, quickness on the three and four and we got good guards and I got good shooters like Roger, Terrence, Calvin (Oftana) and Justin,” said Cone at the end of Gilas’ first practice at the PhilSports Arena on Monday, Sept. 11.
“We’re pretty well equipped. We got some great defenders in Perk and Newsome. We got Scottie all-around play who will also be a little bit more comfortable in what we do than in the World Cup,” Cone furthered.
Of course, the biggest question is whether Abueva and Perkins will get a green light from Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee to be officially part of the lineup as their names were not included in the initial 60 players list submitted by the Philippine Olympic Committee.
“We got size. We got Mo, Japeth, June Mar and Ange. We have an opportunity to compete with the Middle Eastern teams and China with our size,” noted Cone.
“If we can keep Calvin and Perk, I think that will give us versatility to challenge Japan and Korea,” he added. Cone is keeping his fingers crossed on the inclusion of Abueva and Perkins as it would allow Gilas to strike the perfect balance between being guard heavy – just like in the early years of the Nationals’ lineups – and being big heavy – like in the roster in the World Cup
