Smart Gilas Pilipinas has drawn up the national team’s foreign itinerary this year in preparation for the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship.
Smart Gilas operations manager Butch Antonio said the pool of coaches met recently and discussed, among others, the five overseas tournaments lined up for the Philippine five seeking a slot in the Fiba World Championship two years from now.
Antonio said the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas laid down the schedule of the national team’s buildup starting with the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) championship in April, the qualifier for the Fiba Asia Champions Cup in June to be hosted by Lebanon.
Another Seaba meet is on the calendar a month after the Champions Cup, the gathering of the best club teams in the continent. The champion of the Seaba goes straight to the Fiba Asia Stankovic Cup in Tokyo slated September.
Antonio said Smart Gilas would also participate in the William Jones Cup in Taipei a month before the Stankovic Cup, a sneak peek on some of the countries set to compete in the 2013 Asian championship.
Present during the meeting were Talk ‘N Text headcoach Chot Reyes, Meralco bench tactician Ryan Gregorio and Ateneo coach Norman Black.
According to Antonio, the coaches also established the framework and laid out initial plans for Smart Gilas 2, the core of that will come from Sinag Pilipinas, the team which brought home the Southeast Asian Games gold in Indonesia last year.
“We’re fixing the details of the program before we present them to MVP (SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan) and the rest of the Smart Gilas management team,” said Antonio.
The Philippine Basketball Association has offered a 16-man pool to reinforce the national squad, with some of them former Smart Gilas mainstays.
Antonio said the composition of Smart Gilas 2 would be formed once the head coach has been named not later than next month.
Smart Gilas 1 missed the 2012 London Olympics after finishing fourth in the Fiba Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, last year.
Next year’s Asian championship offers three continental spots to the Fiba worlds in Spain.
Meanwhile, PBA Commissioner Chito Salud and Coca-Cola Bottlers Inc. CEO and chair William Schultz met yesterday at the PBA office and discussed the rumored sale of the beverage company’s franchise.
Salud said he would first notify the PBA Board of Governors about the meeting before revealing the details to the media. /inquirer