DAHIL sa kinakaharap na problema hinggil sa availability ng mga PBA players, siniguro ng Gilas Pilipinas na makuha ang commitment ng mga collegiate stars ng bansa para maglaro sa 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
Ayon kay Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin, nagbigay na ng kanilang "verbal commitment" para sumali sa all-cadets team para sa November window ang ilan sa mga napili nilang mga collegiate stars.
"We do have some players that have agreed to be part of it," pahayag ni Baldwin.
Tumanggi namang magbigay ng pangalan si Baldwin kung sinu-sino ang kanilang mga nakausap, ngunit ilan sa mga inaasahang kabilang dito ay sina University of the Philippines star Kobe Paras, La Salle center Justine Baltazar, at Ateneo guard Dave Ildefonso.
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Dahil nagsimula na at kasaluluyang nasa kasagsagan ang 2020 PBA Philippine Cup ‘bubble’ sa Clark, inalis na ng SBP ang planong kumuha ng mga PBA players at coaches para sa Gilas.
"We don't expect the PBA bubble to be able to be broken in any way. So you know at this point, we certainly are ruling out the inclusion of PBA players and coaches," ani Baldwin.
"Now, that means that we have to either look at players overseas, and that are domiciled overseas, which again are going to be very difficult because they more than likely have schedules going on right now, or look into our college ranks which is probably the most likely and the one that coach Ryan (Gregorio) and I are spending most of our time working on right now."
Ngunit, inaalala ngayon ni Baldwin ay kung papayagan ba ang mga batang manlalaro ng kanilang mga magulang o ng kanilang eskuwelahan para magsanay para sa Gilas dahil na rin sa mga umiiral na health protocols at guidelines para sa COVID-19 pandemic na itinakda ng Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Sa ngayon, mayroon lamang anim na players ang Gilas na sina special Gilas draftees Isaac Go, Rey Suerte, Allyn Bulanadi, Jaydee Tingcab at ang kambal na sina Matt at Mike Nieto.
Maaari pa itong maging pito kung mabibigyan ng pahintulot si Thirdy Ravena ng kanyang Japan B League team na San-En Neo Phoenix upang makalaro sa Gilas gayong ngayon pa lamang sya makaaalis patungong Japan matapos magkaproblema sa visa.
"Now, we have some sense of direction, but we still don't know a lot of detail. The most important thing is trying to assemble the roster and coach Ryan and I particularly have been working on that pretty hard in the last month. But even that is still yet to be determined," paliwanag ni Baldwin.
"Really, what we want to do is finalize a roster as quickly as we can, and then we'll announce the roster, given that we're going to be going into a training camp and ultimately playing games in November," aniya. Marivic Awitan
