Coach Yeng Guiao has expressed his intent to hold more practice sessions for the Gilas Pilipinas Men, saying the team’s twice-a-week practice has become too short for being together.
“We’re going to need more than twice a week to be able to make the players run the system by heart and instinctively,” Guiao said at the Meralco Gym on Thursday.
“What we practice (on) Monday, we start all over again on a Thursday, kasi nakakalimutan (because they tend to forget),” he said, reasoning that the players are focused on the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs, which has already begun.
“It’s really difficult getting them to focus on the job at hand,” Guiao added.
He then bared the possibility of starting the daily Gilas practice sooner than planned.
“We’ll talk about it,” Guiao said, noting that he was looking into requiring also-ran teams to release players selected to the pool as soon as possible.
“We’ll see by next week kung sino yung mga teams na nabakante na. Obligahin na namin ang mga players na dumating (We’ll see by next week which teams have become available so we can obligate their players to come to practice),” Guiao said.
This means that Kiefer Ravena, Poy Erram, and CJ Perez’s presence in practice is now expected since NLEX and Columbian had been eliminated.
Raymond Almazan is also expected to show up more often as Meralco was defeated by Alaska, 103-108, in their play-in for the last quarterfinal spot at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Friday night.
The quarterfinals begin Saturday night with Blackwater taking on Rain Or Shine and Ginebra battling Magnolia, also at the MOA Arena, as they begin their respective best-of-three series.
Meanwhile, the Aces battle the TNT KaTropa while the San Miguel Beermen take on NorthPort Batang Pier at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on Sunday night. The KaTropa and the Batang Pier only need one win to advance to the semifinals. (PNA)
