Fourteen Strong

Asia's Best
(Photo credit: gmanetwork.com)

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas finally announced its 14-man Gilas line-up set to represent the country in the coming International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Olympic Qualifying Tournament this July.

Making the final cut for Head Coach Tab Baldwin are: Jayson Castro, Ranidel De Ocampo, Troy Rosario, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, June Mar Fajardo, Marc Pingris, Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio, Ray Parks, Terrence Romeo, Ryan Reyes, and Andray Blatche.

Some of the names that did not make it include: Marcio Lassiter, Paul Lee, Greg Slaughter, Kiefer Ravena, Mike Tolomia, Kevin Ferrer and Mac Belo (read: we will go back to these gentlemen in a later entry).

Gilas OQT preps are in full swing

Who's joining Blatche?
(Photo credit: FIBA.com)

The month of May is almost coming to an end, which leaves Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin less than 50 days to trim down his 24-man pool to about 13-14 players.

From the PBA we have: Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Ranidel de Ocampo, Ryan Reyes, Mo Tautuaa, Jayson Castro, Troy Rosario, L. A. Tenorio, Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, Marcio Lassiter, June Mar Fajardo, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Paul Lee, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, and Marc Pingris.

From the amateur ranks we have Kiefer Ravena, Kevin Ferrer, Mac Belo, R. R. Pogoy, Russell Escoto and, fresh from his stint in the NBA D-League, Bobby Parks, Jr.

Slaughter and Rosser have already formally begged off from Gilas OQT duty owing to injuries, Tautuaa is no longer needed as Blatche is on his way back to serve as our naturalized reinforcement, while most of the amateurs have been sent to secure the SEABA gold medal: Ferrer, Belo, Pogoy and Escoto with PBA rookie Troy Rosario in tow.

Oh, hey, look! We were able to trim down the roster to 15 (16 if you count Blatche who is a lock):

Dare to dream

Bring him in
(Photo credit: Rappler.com)

There is reason to believe in Gilas Pilipinas and its Coach Tab Baldwin other than blind fanaticism or patriotism.

With 65 calendar days left until the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (which opens in Manila from July 5 onwards), Coach Tab has finally submitted a 24-man pool to FIBA headquarters. We already know that 6"11 naturalized center Andray Blatche is a lock, and though we would have wanted maybe a name or two from the PBA to be added, the overall list sure as hell makes as believe that we could, at the very least, salvage even TWO preliminary wins (which in turn would allow us to advance into the next round, possibly even deeper).

Not a moral victory. Not a single win. But two wins. Three. Four. Maybe more.

Rio?

Anything is possible.

Checking on Gilas

We are officially just four months away until we welcome the men's national basketball teams of France, New Zealand, Senegal, Canada and Turkey for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament set to open on the 5th of July.

Which means, if our very own Gilas is even entertaining thoughts of salvaging at least a victory, then the practices need to be increased; and attendance, a must. Unfortunately for head coach Tab Baldwin, that is not the case.

So here is where we are right now:

Paul Lee is still out nursing whatever. Ian Sangalang is most likely going to be taken out of the pool owing to his subpar PBA season play and non-attendance of practices. Jayson Castro's old achilles injury is acting up again. And the Gilas pool, the original one asked for by Coach Tab, have yet to all suit up together for a single, full-on contact practice.

Yikes.

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.

Praying for the best

Our only concern here is,
Pingris, Fajardo, Aguilar AND Slaughter
are all playing HEAVY  minutes this conference
(Photo credit to the owner)

Just a quick update on our Gilas Pilipinas 17-man pool for the Olympic Qualifiers:

Ranidel de Ocampo is out recovering from a near-serious injury. Ian Sangalang has been absent from majority (if not all) of the team's only Monday practices. Paul Lee is still out. L.A. Tenorio for the most part of his PBA run this season, has been off. Collegiate standout and 2x UAAP MVP Kiefer Ravena has officially been added to the pool.

That makes three guys who will have to make up for lost time should they wish to rejoin the group, another guy who seems to be having some trouble getting back to top form and a young blood who fits the bill to a "T" as far as a well-rounded, highly-skilled national player is concerned, but in our honest opinion is probably NOT the guy we wanted to add right now.