Here’s why Gilas’ triple towers will miss FIBA first window

Just a day after his re-hiring as Gilas Pilipinas head coach, Chot Reyes had wondered why his predecessor Tab Baldwin struggled to form a complete 12 players for his pool.

“The remaining players from Coach Tab’s pool are not even ten. They can’t even put up eight guys now,” he wondered to Tiebreaker Times.

Outside of what-used-to-be the eight PBA Gilas draftees, Baldwin’s Gilas was mainly composed of collegiate stars and Kai Sotto.

So why can’t Gilas tap the UAAP student-athletes and Sotto for the first window of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers set from February 24-28.

First off, Sotto’s mother league National Basketball League-Australia will not be having a FIBA break during the window.

Photo by Adelaide 36ers

In fact, Adelaide will be playing its Round 13 games during that week.

Sotto though is committed to playing for Gilas come the Asian Games which takes place on September in Hangzhou, China.

Meanwhile, all eight UAAP teams are now in their respective bubbles.

It’s level two in the National Capital Region right wherein pro sports teams are allowed to hold closed-circuit trainings right?

Unfortunately, that is not the case for varsity squads.

The Commission on Higher Education only allowed schools to hold training for their sports teams under a full bubble modality regardless of the quarantine level in the region.

This means that all participants cannot just leave or go inside the bubble.

Photo by FIBA.basketball

Justine Baltazar is currently inside La Salle’s bubble in Taft. Same with Carl Tamayo, who is in University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Photo from FIBA.basketball

This is the same reason why the Philippine National Volleyball Federation was not able to call up Ateneo’s Faith Nisperos; University of Santo Tomas’ Eya Laure, Imee Hernandez and Bernadette Pepito; and National University’s Kamille Cal, Mhicaela Belen, Ivy Lacsina, Alyssa Solomon, and Jennifer Nierva.

Angelo Kouame of Ateneo, meanwhile, cannot be part of Ateneo’s training bubble in Katipunan while he is serving Gilas duties.

The UAAP is set to begin on March 26.