Time not on Marc Pingris’ side with tough grind ahead

Gilas pool’s newest addition Marc Pingris will have to learn the system as fast as he could. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

TAIPEI – Marc Pingris, the newest member of the Gilas Pilipinas pool, will be in for a tough grind with national coach Tab Baldwin wanting him to get in shape quickly and learn the team’s systems as fast as he could.

“He will be playing a lot,” Baldwin said on Saturday afternoon, moments after seeing Iran annihilate fellow Asian powerhouse South Korea at the start of the Jones Cup Invitational basketball championship at Xinchuang Gymnasium here.

Pingris has been with the team for less than a week, something which happened when he first said that he would not be playing before making a dramatic u-turn when the Filipinos left for Estonia to play in a four-nation tournament.

The 6-foot-4 Star superstar in the PBA joined Gilas in practice just last Tuesday and he, in effect, will be playing in just his first Jones Cup after not being with the Gilas squad that won this event over the United States in 2012.

Also expected to see action in most of the games is 6-foot-7 Fil-Tongan Moala Tautuaa, the Philippines’ naturalized reserve center, because of the absence of Andray Blatche.

Blatche made the trip to here on Friday but decided to leave Saturday morning to attend the funeral of his uncle in the United States.