Six Barangay Ginebra San Miguel players will serve as the core of the 15-man national pool for the 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) that the country will be hosting from November 30 to December 11 this year, coach Tim Cone revealed on Thursday.
Cone said the seven-footer Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, Scottie Thompson, LA Tenorio, Stanley Pringle and Art Dela Cruz of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel will reinforce the SEAG-bound national basketball team.
The other players that Gilas Pilipinas loaned from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) are San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Christian Standhardinger; TNT Katropa’s Roger Pogoy, Jayson Castro and Troy Rosario; Alaska’s Vic Manuel and Phoenix’s Matthew Wright.
Cone said time constraint is the reason why he opted for pros instead of amateurs as members of the pool.
“With limited practice, we don’t have time to teach and we don’t have a time to try out and get a lot of guys in and figure out who is going to be. We just don’t have that time,” Cone told reporters in a news conference on Thursday at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City.
Cone, with 21 titles including two Grand Slams as a PBA coach, said the country’s basketball team cannot afford to lose in the biennial meet.
“We don’t want to lose this one. This is our home court. This is not the best talent, but we are trying to be the best team that we can be,” added Cone, who will be coaching the Philippine team for the second time. He led the Philippine Centennial team to a bronze medal finish in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.
“We decided to go with a veteran group, again, because generally veterans are easier to coach short-term. They pick up things faster than the young guys. This is all about speed and efficiency that we’re trying to do,” he said.
The national pool will practice every Monday starting September 30.
