Players like Thirdy Ravena, Isaac Go, Matt Nieto, and Andrei Caracut will not be donning the Gilas Pilipinas jersey when the cadet squad participates in the 2018 Filoil Flying V Preseason Cup.
National team coach Chot Reyes bared that Ateneo and La Salle have asked the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) to excuse the players from joining the nationals in their foray in the summer tournament.
Ravena attended the Gilas cadets’ practice on Thursday, while Go and Nieto have not shown up since the Chooks-to-Go-backed team started its practices.
Though he wasn’t part of the initial “23-for-2023” list, Caracut was considered for the team before the Green Archers asked the SBP to excuse their players from being enlisted as they focus on their rebuild under new coach Louie Gonzalez.
Except for the four, most of the players who were part of the list are available for the Filoil tourney.
Kobe Paras leads the 18-man pool which Gilas will parade for the tournament.
Joining him are guards CJ Perez, Robert Bolick, Paul Desiderio, Ricci Rivero, J-Jay Alejandro, and Juan Gomez de Liaño, wings Javee Mocon, Arvin Tolentino, Jeo Ambohot, Ken Tuffin, Vince Tolentino, and Prince Rivero, and big men Kai Sotto, Abu Tratter, Will Gozum, Carl Tamayo, and Fil-Am Troy Rike.
“It’s a very interesting mix of players,” said Reyes. “I told them it’s unfortunate if we’ll just practice and not play. So we’re very grateful to Filoil for giving us an opportunity to compete, not just a guest team but as an actual team.”
“Aside from naming them, we wanted to already take a look at the guys’, aside from their abilities and skill, really their attitude. And nothing shows you attitude more effectively than active competition. We wanted to take a look who will be OK. If we see some bad attitude guys, we get rid of them early so that we can continue refining the list.”