‘Gilastopainters’ set for World Cup

JAKARTA, Indonesia– No rest for the weary.

After a grueling battle in the 18th Asian Games here, the Philippine men’s basketball team will immediately regroup in preparation for the second round of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier on Sept. 13 in Tehran.

Gilastopainters’ head coach Yeng Guiao said they will catch the earliest flight back to Manila following their classification battle with Syria on Friday and just take a couple of days rest before training on Monday for the next FIBA window.

On the same note, Jordan Clarkson will also check out of this city on Friday to prepare for the training camp with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Guiao said they have to train as soon as possible.

“The FIBA window is Sept 13, so we’ll prepare as soon as we get back to Manila. We will practice this coming Monday for the FIBA window,” said Guiao, who will call the shots following the one-game suspension slapped on Chot Reyes for his involvement in the massive brawl with the Australian national team last July.

The Gilastopainters made heads turn with their impressive performance here despite their very limited time of preparation.

They crushed Kazakhstan by 30 points and were a couple of good plays away from pulling an upset of superpowers China and Korea.

Then, they dominated Japan in the classification phase to formally surpass the seventh-place finish registered by Reyes and his boys in the Incheon edition of the Asiad in 2014.

Aside from Clarkson, everybody played with something to prove.

Bull-strong Christian Standhardinger dominated the paint while Stanley Pringle and Paul Lee dazzled the crowd with their basketball wizardry.

Although James Yap suffered an ankle injury prior to their match against Korea, Gabe Norwood, Chris Tiu, Beau Belga and Poy Erram all stepped up to help the Filipinos put on a gallant fight.

Guiao said everybody in the team, including reserve Don Trollano, has a handsome chance of making it.

“All of these 12 people with us, of course including Don Trollano, are going to be considered and we would make that decision as soon as we get to Manila,” he said.

“By Monday, we’ll have a team going to Iran.”

With 7-foot-2 Hamed Haddadi and crafty wingmen Arsalan Kazemi and Sahmad Nikkhah Bahrami still on the roster, the Filipinos are tipped to have their hands full against the mighty Iranians.

But Guiao said they already have them figured out.