Young Philippine talents secure men’s cage gold

JAKARTA—The Smart Gilas program, with its key players now with the pros, has discovered worthy replacements Sunday night after the Philippine team bagged the gold medal in the 26th Southeast Asian Games.

“We will go home and sit down [with Manny V. Pangilinan, chair of national team sponsor Smart-PLDT] and decide on it,” Smart Gilas operations manager Butch Antonio told the Inquirer after an 85-57 demolition of Thailand.

The expected win, fashioned out before a huge pro-Filipino crowd at the BritAma Arena here, reaffirmed the country’s premier basketball status in the region.

Not only are the prime slots to be filled by younger blood that played here, but the coaching position will be very different from how the program operated as recently as two months ago, when Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman called the shots.

Antonio disclosed that instead of a head coach, the activation of a coaching pool, where at least six coaches, with Toroman possibly among them, will be tapped.

Chris Tiu, who won his first SEA Games gold, and Greg Slaughter are the only prominent remnants of Smart Gilas program.

Antonio bared that Pangilinan is seriously considering making the core of this Games squad as the nucleus of Gilas II.

“We have a great team here, young and athletic,” Antonio said. “But it will be all up to the boss (Pangilinan).”

Under the coaching pool program, Norman Black, the SEA Games and Ateneo coach; Chot Reyes of Talk ‘N Text and Ryan Gregorio of Meralco, the second Pangilinan team in the PBA, will definitely be in the pool.