Gilas Pilipinas, flies to Spain today for pocket tourney

Naturalized player Andray Blatche and veteran Gabe Norwood will head the 11-man Gilas Philippines pool that will leave for Spain for a 10-day training camp in preparation for the FIBA ​​World Cup in China.

Blatche and Norwood include Mark Barroca, CJ Perez, Robert Bolick, Paul Lee, Poy Erram, Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Beau Belga, and Kiefer Ravena.

Raymond Almazan may have been the 12th player for the national squad, but he did not get a Spanish visa, even as assistant coach Ford Arao.

“This is the best we can do with the limitations of the PBA schedule. We just try to get all the work done to put this team together in the eighth day that they were in Spain, ”said coach Yeng Guiao.

Gilas's Roger Pogoy and Troy Rosario of TNT KaTropa, and Marcio Lassiter, June Mar Fajardo, and Christian Standhardinger of San Miguel will not be included in the Gilas trip due to the PBA Commissioner's Cup championship round.

"This is an important stage for our preparation, This is the time where we can really focus 100% on what we need to do on the system that we're trying to set up," Guiao said.

Sunday at 7:40 am Gilas will travel to Madrid and head to the city of Guadalajara to face the Congo and Ivory Coast in a back-to-back practice match.

The Filipino cagers will then head to Malaga to recapture the Congo for a mini tournament. The winner, in turn, will be the winner of the Ivory Coast and Spain separate games.

Spain is expected to sack all of its NBA players, including Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, and brothers Juancho and Willy Hernangomez.