Gilas trains two weeks with full cast

Smart Gilas Pilipinas will only have a little over two weeks to train for the FIBA Asia Championship with a complete lineup after Talk n Text players Jimmy Alapag, Kelly Williams and Ranidel de Ocampo said they would only join the Nationals starting Aug. 29.

The three are coming off a grueling seven-game PBA finals series against eventual champion Petron Boosters and have asked for some time to rest.

“They’ll join the team on Aug. 29,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman.

That gives the team 16 days to practice together and blend in time for the FIBA Asia meet set Sept. 15-25 in Wuhan, China which stakes a lone berth in next year’s London Olympics.

Alapag, Williams and de Ocampo were supposed to join Smart Gilas in the four-team pocket tournament starting today in Doha, Qatar. But Toroman decided to cancel the trip at the last minute to give the three reinforcements more time to rest.

“I guess the three would need to rest for a week more or less,” said Smart Gilas team manager Frankie Lim.

The team, meanwhile, is looking to play a couple of tune-up games with the Jordanian national team tentatively set Sept. 8 and 9 in Manila. It is also trying to arrange another set of matches with the Chinese nationals in China.

“We hope to play as many games as we can with the TnT players but we haven’t finalized a single one yet,” said Toroman.

Meanwhile, team captain Chris Tiu and JV Casio will rejoin the team’s practice today.

Tiu tweaked his left ankle in the battle for third place against Chinese Taipei in the Jones Cup where the Philippines finished third behind Iran and Korea.

“I’m doing rehab for my ankle, JV also. We resume practice tomorrow (today),” said Tiu, who decided to forego his pro plans and stay with the Smart Gilas program for another two years.

Alapag, Williams and de Ocampo will join Meralco’s Asi Taulava as the four PBA players reinforcing Smart Gilas in Wuhan after Air21’s Dondon Hontiveros quit the team due to fatigue.

Tiu said he’s trying to convince Hontiveros to reconsider his decision.

“As for Dondon, I’m still trying to convince him because he is a big asset to the team,” said Tiu.

The other members of the squad are naturalized Marcus Douthit, Mark Barroca, Marcio Lassiter, Mac Baracael, Chris Lutz, Japeth Aguilar, Dylan Ababou and Jason Ballesteros.