By NIKOLE JAVIER
Gilas Pilipinas continues its battle with roster woes four days before making its return to the Asian Games happening in China.
The Nationals were met with the lineup confusion after some members of their supposed Final 12 were deemed excluded from the initial list.
While fielding the World Cup lineup sounded the most logical step, most of the players revealed their unavailability for the continental meet which forced interim head coach Tim Cone to look for other reinforcements.
During Gilas’ 86-81 tune-up match win against Korean club team LG Sakers on Friday, Sept. 22 at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City, the five last-minute replacements in CJ Perez, Arvin Tolentino, Chris Ross and Kevin Alas were present including Marcio Lassiter, who is coming in for Roger Pogoy.
Even pending pool players Terrence Romeo, Jason Perkins and Mo Tautuaa were in attendance.
“Obviously, the four were here except for Calvin (Abueva).The other three came here and we really appreciate it. I thought that was really cool to have them here. Is there no hope for them? They’re breathing. That’s about all we can say. They’re still alive. We’re still working on it and we’ll have a definitive time by the 24th but by and large, we got our 12 right now,” said interim head coach Tim Cone.
At the moment, Scottie Thompson, Calvin Oftana, Chris Newsome, Japeth Aguilar, June Mar Fajardo, and naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame make up the rest of the Final 12.
The Nationals are flying out to China on Sunday as they open their campaign against Bahrain in Group C two days later.
With the short turnaround, Cone remained positive that the group could be setting up something promising at the Asiad.
“You never judge a team by one game, whether good or bad. You never judge an import by the first game they play. We’re still adjusting together but we really did some positive things out there, we moved the ball well, we had 14 assists in the first half. We didn’t come into this game worried about whether we would lose or win, I said everybody else would worry about that but we’re just gonna come out and see if we can defend and move the ball,” Cone said.
The Philippines is also playing Thailand and Jordan in the first round of the tournament.
