Gilas, sigh.

Photo credit to PhilStar.com

I care.

For flag and country, to see the fulfillment of every single Filipino basketball enthusiast's dream.

To see our players, the word PILIPINAS, on the grandest stage of the sport that we have all come to love and adopted as our very own. There are different styles, the flashy American one, the finesse/ skilled European one, and our own physical/ barbaric ways to name a few. We are not very good at it, or at the very least that is how it currently looks because we have never made it that far not since the early days, but we care.

I care.

That being said, I cannot help but feel disappointed with how it was recently announced that Gilas practice has taken a backseat to the Playoffs. Only three teams are left competing. Nine have been eliminated. Of the initial 17 players chosen, only 6 are currently playing.

That means we have 11 from the original 17 man pool. We also added collegiate stars Kiefer Ravena, Mac Belo and Kevin Ferrer. Which should give us 14 guys.

Why, oh why, did we only name 17? Why did the practices have to stop? Is the PBA really committed to winning a slot in the Qualifiers? Or, like we have always wondered, was the 17-man pool just a stop-gap, PR disaster control effort after we blew our chance in the FIBA Asia tournament (which, to this very day, we could have easily won had we sent anywhere near this 17 man pool and not a rag-tag one).

This conference is just about done. Ranidel de Ocampo was hurt-- bad while Ian Sanggalang continues to struggle in trying to gain top form. There are still two more conferences left to play, and those guys from San Miguel (Junemar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter) play close to 35 minutes a game. Same way with Ginebra's L.A. Tenorio and Greg Slaughter, and Star's Marc Pingris.

They will be dead tired by season's end. Same with the Talk'n'Text guys. Rain or Shine and Alaska are the only teams that balance the minutes, but even their top guys will most likely be dead tired with the way they keep making deep Playoff runs and all.

Honestly, I just wish the PBA Commissioner would step in and give us some kind of assurance. That every thing is going according to plan. Better yet, that he will allow Coach Tab Baldwin to maybe pick a few more players, from other teams this time, to help out.

Or hey, schedule a few pick-up games late in the season to fine tune the Gilas pool. Whoever is left. How about making them a guest team in the 3rd conference? But that would require a few rule changes so maybe it won't be for the best.

Who knows?