Gilas ready to rumble for the Asia Cup qualifying stretch

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas is confident that the current 19-man pool of Gilas that they have right now is ready for battle in the third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.

It was no less than SBP president Al Panlilio himself who made the assurance when he graced Tuesday’s web session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association forum, in which the squad of coach Jong Uichico and project director Tab Baldwin are already in the thick of their intense bubble training in Laguna as they gear up for the home stretch in Group A.

Said Panlilio on his PSA debut, “I think this team will compete.”

It also helped that they have been given a boost when teenage sensation Kai Sotto forego his G-League campaign with Ignite to join the senior Gilas for the very first time in a move that divided the country.

However, they have to scamper for time owing to quarantine protocols, as he was only given at most one week of practice with the pool before flying to Qatar.

“He [Sotto] needs to understand the system they’re trying to play and run. Kumbaga sa basketball, dapat nagkaka-amuyan na kayo ng teammates mo, and you can only do that if you’re practicing with them,” he affirmed.

But then on, there’s nothing worth meaningful about putting too much pressure on the 7’3” behemoth, who had been the poster boy of Batang Gilas in their World Cup campaign in both the U17 and U19 levels.

“He’s the future of Philippine basketball for sure, but he’s also developing as a player, as a person.”

And based on the developments inside the Inspire Sports Academy, Mr. Panlilio is definitely satisfied of how the team have gelled since sweeping their second window assignments in November last year as they are being pushed hard in their training by Uichico and Baldwin.

“We’re very happy with the way the team is developing. They’re playing hard and ready to go.”

Unbeaten in their first three games and on top of the pile, the national side has its one foot in qualifying for the tournament proper, as it only needs just one win in their final troika of fixtures in the cage wars from February 18-22 in the Middle East.

But despite the magic number, Panlilio insist that they have to go all out and leave nothing to chance as they still control their own destiny.

“We really need to win just one game to qualify. But we will try to win all of the games,” he stressed.

However, those fixtures would not be easy to begin with as two of those games will be against bitter archrivals South Korea (Feb 18 and Feb 22), in whom the country lost its past six games away from home, including a 32-point massacre being inflicted by the hot shooting Koreans in the quarterfinals of the 2017 edition in Beirut.

Sandwiched in those twin games with the nemesis is their return tie with Indonesia on February 20, almost a year since beating them by 30 to open their qualifying campaign.

FILE PHOTOS: FIBA