Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
With Gilas Pilipinas finally starting daily practices in preparation for the 2017 Seaba Championship, coach Chot Reyes was far from satisfied with how his team fared in day one.
“We were struggling. It’s hard to build any rhythm and cadence with this kind of schedule when some players are here and some players are not. We’re just relying on the players’ innate talent and resourcefulness. It is what it is. We just have to make sure we keep plugging away,” he said.
Seventeen players attended the early Monday evening sessions at Kerry Sports Manila in Taguig, with GlobalPort’s Terrence Romeo and Von Pessumal coming in late after coming from their mother ballclub’s practice at Gatorade Hoops Center in Shaw.
READ: Gilas begins daily training
Reyes understands the restrictions other pool members are facing with the ongoing 2017 PBA Commssioner’s Cup and he has surrendered to the fact that he has to make do with what he has.
“The agreement with the PBA stipulates that their mother teams take precedence for now. And those who are playing in Wednesdays are excused on the day before and in the gameday itself, so those are the things that we just continue to work around,” he said.
Not helping are the injuries, which has further kept the team’s intensity from reaching Reyes’ desired level.
That was on display again when Calvin Abueva incurred a busted lip an hour into the team’s practice during the team’s five-on-five-on-five scrimmages.
READ:Abueva exits Gilas practice with busted lip
“I don’t know how much lighter we can get. We can’t avoid running to those injuries because we always run the risk of something like that to happen, but we hope it’s nothing serious,” he said.
Though already pressed for time in terms of preparation, Reyes is hopeful that whatever time they spent in training will bear fruit come the regional tournament in May.
“Hopefully, we do (instill our system to the players). We’ll only find that out when the tournament time comes. Hopefully, we’re achieving something with these workouts,” he said. “Hopefully they’re picking things up. My concern really is that these are talented players. They’ll pick things up quickly. But will it be a habit? Will it be an instinct? That’s the question. Do we have time? Is 10 days enough to ingrain it as habitual and instinctive in their games for that system to come out? That’s really the ongoing concern.”