MANILA, Philippines — With the exception of naturalized Filipino Marcus Douthit and Japeth Aguilar, all the other players of Smart-Gilas Pilipinas fall under the category of amateurs. However, after playing together the past two years against professional and national teams from other countries, Talk ’N Text mentor Chot Reyes, who is also with the coaching staff of the RP team, believes Smart-Gilas is no ordinary amateur team.
“Actually, there’s nothing amateur about that team. That team, for me, will be very tough,” Reyes said Tuesday night in a thanksgiving dinner after helping TNT win the Philippine Cup against San Miguel Beer last week.
Smart-Gilas is preparing for its second stint in the PBA with the Commissioners Cup starting Feb. 18, and compared to the Nationals’ poor performance in the Philippine Cup last season – where they won only three of 10 games – Reyes expect the team to be a strong contender.
The games of the national team against the nine PBA squads will count in their win-loss records and Smart-Gilas will be competing for playoff spots.
“The national team has the potential to make it to the Final Four, even the Finals,” said Reyes, who was on the bench when he helped Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman in the previous Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Reyes is expected to rejoin the coaching staff when Smart-Gilas competes in the FIBA-Asia Championship on Sept. 15 in Wuhan, China, the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics.
While PBA teams have imports not taller than 6-foot-4, the Nationals will rely on Douthit, a 6-foot-10 American who played in various professional leagues abroad and was naturalized recently.
The other pro in Smart-Gilas is the 6-foot-9 Aguilar, who was taken by Burger King (now Air21) in the PBA Rookie Draft two years ago. After playing one game, he was dealt to TNT, which loaned him to the national team.
The other players of Toroman are former collegiate stalwarts including Chris Tiu, JV Casio, Mark Barroca, Mac Baracael, Greg Slaughter, Dylan Ababou, Aldrech Ramos, Marcio Lassiter, Jason Ballesteros and Chris Lutz.
For the FIBA-Asia, Reyes said that Toroman needs at least five PBA players to reinforce the team.
“Rajko is doing right, but I think he needs better players because this is the Olympic qualifier. They need another lights out shooter like Jimmy Alapag or James Yap. I know he’s looking at Ranidel de Ocampo, Ryan Reyes, Kelly Williams and Asi Taulava,” Reyes said.
Waylon Galvez, Manila Bulletin
