There must be a better reason why Gilas Pilipinas decided to hold its training sessions behind closed doors the past week.

Other than the fact that this period is considered crunch time for the FIBA Basketball World Cup hopefuls, key players of Gilas Pilipinas still have a lot of catching up to do — and we are talking about the essential components of the squad who are expected to have guaranteed spots on the team.

First is Jordan Clarkson, the National Basketball Association star who has yet to play a single game for Gilas Pilipinas since the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers last year.

Although he's no stranger to how Gilas Pilipinas has been running the system, the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year awardee will have to get along with some new faces on the team, including AJ Edu, who is making a solid case for his inclusion in the final roster.

Aside from Edu, Clarkson has also never played with Rhenz Abando as well as six-time Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo.

The past week was dedicated to the reimmersion of Clarkson, Kai Sotto and Scottie Thompson to the squad.

Like Clarkson, Sotto has also never played a single game with Gilas since the fifth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers last year in which they played road games against Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Even worse was the fact that Sotto has a lot of catching up to do as he is coming off a back injury that sidelined him for nearly a month.

He has returned the past few days, but the NBA aspirant is obviously groping for form as his timing, conditioning and brain power are still sputtering considering that he has to be on top of his game.

His present state of mind, however, is telling that he needs to double up his effort.

Thompson has just returned from doing contact drills about a  month since he suffered a fractured right ring finger. But while waiting for his recovery, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel star didn't slow down as he continued to work on his conditioning with regular running just to keep his endurance.

His hand is much better now and, although he's not yet 100 percent, you would definitely pick somebody like him who does so many things on the floor while waiting for his complete recovery.

The rest of the Gilas players are staying locked in and continuing to fight for roster spots from mainstays like Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar to fellow PBA stars Chris Newsome, Jamie Malonzo, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez and Roger Pogoy to overseas players like Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, Ray Parks, Dwight Ramos, Abando and Edu.

Gilas' last tuneup matches leading to the FIBA World Cup against Ivory Coast at press time, Montenegro on 20 August and Mexico on 21 August will determine the final composition of the team. We expect Clarkson, Thompson and Sotto to make their presence felt and justify their inclusion in the Final 12.

Indeed, it's crunch time for Gilas Pilipinas.