New Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is making sure the national team to the 30th Southeast Asian Games will be a crowd pleaser.
Cone’s crowd darlings – the Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings will form the nucleus of the national basketball team to the biennial meet to be hosted by the Philippines from Nov. 30 to December 10.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas made this decision following a meeting yesterday with Cone and SBP chief Al Panlilio.
Cone has included Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, Scottie Thompson, LA Tenorio, Stanley Pringle and Art Dela Cruz to his 15-man national pool, all composed of professional players from the Philippine Basketball Association.
“We’re going with a team that I’m familiar with due to the short window,î said Cone. “I donít have time to teach everybody. We need a core group to understand what we have to do offensively and defensively.”
The six Ginebra cagers will come aboard and train alongside San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Christian Standhardinger.
Also added to the team are the TNT’s Katropa trio of Roger Pogoy, Jayson Castro and Troy Rosario.
Completing the pool are Alaska’s Vic Manuel and Matthew Wright of Phoenix.
On the other hand, a 12-man PBA pool for the national 3×3 squad has also been formed.
CJ Perez and Robert Bolick, who made a good impression in the FIBA World Cup 2019, were listed in the country’s bid for the 3×3 gold medal.
The others are Terrence Romeo, Chris Banchero, Ian Sangalang, Mo Tautuaa, Chris Newsome, Baser Amer, Anthony Semerad, Mac Belo, Raymund Almazan, and Jason Perkins.
