Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
LUCENA — It has always been hard for Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes to select players for the roster for an upcoming international tournament.
Reyes was once again in a quandary when he had to finally decide on the 12 players who will play in the upcoming 2017 Seaba Championships.
The outspoken praised three rookies whom he felt deserved to be called up but just missed the cut.
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“If I had to choose 15, Kevin Ferrer, Carl Bryan Cruz, and Mike Tolomia would definitely be there,” the outspoken mentor said. “That should give you an idea how hard it was for us to make a decision.”
Matthew Wright, Jio Jalalon, and Roger Pogoy were the three cadets who got the nod to make it to the roster.
They will join naturalized center Andray Blatche, and Gilas veterans June Mar Fajardo, Jayson Castro, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Japeth Aguilar, and Troy Rosario in the roster.
READ: Fajardo, Blatche lead Gilas SEABA 12; 3 rookies make it
Also making their national team debut are Raymond Almazan and Allein Maliksi.
Despite Reyes’ announcement, the coach kept on reminding his pool members to stay the course noting that the roster was just for the Seaba tourney.
“I didn’t want to call it the final 12 because this is just the Seaba 12. I told the players to keep working hard because if we win Seaba, we have the Fiba Asia, and then the Southeast Asian Games and the World Cup qualifiers to look forward to. For now, that is the Seaba 12,” he said.
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Reyes said that players will continue to be evaluated as they play in the international tournaments.
“In the future, there are players in the team who are in the team because we want to get a look at them in international competition, and that’s going to form our decision on our team for Fiba Asia, if we make it, the Southeast Asian Games, the Jones Cup, and the World qualifiers. There’s still a lot of tournaments for this team and like I said, this is just the first step.”