GILAS PILIPINAS LEAVES FOR NEW ZEALAND AFTER ONE LAST PRACTICE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 08 Jul 2013
Chot Reyes.
The Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team had one last practice before leaving for Napier, the popular tourist city 320 kilometers northeast of the capital of Wellington, New Zealand on Tuesday afternoon, determined to step up its FIBA Asia Championship buildup on a 10-day training tour.
It will be a tiring 20-hour journey with a six hour layover in Hong Kong and a brief stopover in Auckland.
Following a brief rest, the Gilas team will buckle down to work under coach Chot Reyes which will kickoff the final stages of the nationals preparation for the FIBA Asia Championships which opens at the Mall of Asia Arena on August 1.
The Gilas Pilipinas team is eyeing a top three finish which would guarantee a spot in the FIBA World Cup in Spain next year.
It's been a tough grind for most of the players in the national pool since they started preparations last year and coach Reyes and his players are in no mood to relax with the FIBA Asia championships with just over three weeks to go.
Reyes is hoping the squad will be 90 percent ready during their New Zealand training stint which will be highlighted by a five-day clinic under renowned coach Tab Baldwin and six tune-up matches in the cities of Napier, Wellington and Auckland.
Two days after arriving in Napier, Reyes and his coaching staff will decide on the final twelve-man lineup for the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in order to the line-up before they begin their six-game grind in New Zealand.
The 13 players who will be in New Zealand are the same ones who went through a rigorous training stint in Lithuania and are led by big men Marcus Douthit, Junmar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar and Beau Belga alomng with Marc Pingris, Ranidel de Ocampo, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Gary David, Larry Fonacier, Jayson Castro, LA Tenorio and Jimmy Alapag. Sonny Thoss, the Alaska center who was in the line-up didn?t make the Lithuania trip and won?t be able to travel to New Zealand as he will enjoy the bonus given the team for winning the PBA Commissioner?s Cup.
Reyes has indicated Thoss would be out of the line-up because it would be unfair to those who have sacrificed in their foreign training stints to be prejudiced.
Reyes has also indicated that one slot would be a choice between Aguilar and Belga.
The New Zealand trip offers Gilas Pilipinas clinic sessions with coach Baldwin and a tune-up series topped by a game versus the New Zealand national team to compensate for the Jones Cup organizers decision to withdraw an invitation it had sent defending champions Gilas Pilipinas to compete in the on-going tournament.
Reyes said ?We all know that New Zealand basketball is good that?s why we chose New Zealand. It's also important that their National Basketball League is in season so their players are in shape.?
Reyes also looks forward to the clinic, expecting to learn valuable lessons from Baldwin who had been in Asian basketball circle for about four years, steering Jordan to a breakthrough second-place finish in the Wuhan Asian joust in 2011.
Baldwin and his Jordan team beat Iran in the quarterfinals, crushed the Philippines in the semifinals and narrowly lost to China in the finale.
A year earlier, the Jacksonville, Florida native piloted the Lebanese national team to the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup title conquest.
He has since returned to New Zealand, his base since the 90s and from which he was made an honorary officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his great achievement engineering the Tall Blacks? semifinal finish in the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis.
Having made the rounds of Asian basketball in 2010 and 2011 with great success, the 55-year-old coach can well dissect the games of the Asian powers for Gilas Pilipinas.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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