TNT has the distinction of being the best-represented team in the Philippine national basketball team, but that honor came at a price for the KaTropa in the club level.
Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario, and Roger Pogoy—basically half of TNT’s core—are all part of the Gilas team that is in Taiwan for the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Although the PBA Commissioner’s Cup is on a two-week break to accommodate Gilas, TNT head coach Nash Racela couldn’t shake off the feeling that he couldn’t use the layoff to improve his team.
“It’s not easy on our part right now because you don’t have your Gilas players,” said Racela in Filipino Thursday during their training at Moro Lorenzo Sports Center in Ateneo.
“This is a major concern for us because when you lose four players, you don’t get to practice and prepare as a group so it’s really a concern.”
Apart from the four Gilas players, Racela also has three more players who couldn’t practice with the team with Joshua Smith, Kelly Williams, and Alex Nuyles saddled with injuries.
This predicament comes at an unfortunate time for the KaTropa who are tied with Alaska at the second seed with 7-3 records and will need every bit of advantage to lock up that last no.2 spot.
One slip up could deny them of the second spot, which will give a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals, with just one more game left in their schedule.
Waiting for TNT in its last game is no.1 Rain or Shine that holds a 9-1 record.
“We can only focus on things we can control, which is our game against Rain or Shine, we can’t control what happens in Alaska’s game so we’ll just do our part in preparing for our last match,” said Racela.
“But it’s just so hard when you practice with just 10 players… we’ll just make our adjustments while the other teams are not almost complete.”