A STRING of recent lopsided and painful defeats in the last three windows of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers and international tourneys has told heavily on Gilas Pilipinas.
The nationals have dropped from 33rd to 41st in the latest world rankings released by the world governing body for basketball last Monday.
Gilas absorbed embarrassing setbacks at the hands of New Zealand 63-88 last Feb. 27 and 60-106 last June 30 in the first round of the qualifiers.
The Filipino dribblers also finished ninth and missed the quarterfinals for the first time since 2007 in the FIBA Asia Cup two months ago.
The wards of coach Chot Reyes lost 81-85 to Lebanon in the fourth window last Aug. 25 and slipped to 3-3 in Group E of the qualifiers.
Gilas has hit the ground running for the fifth window.
The likes of reigning PBA MVP Scottie Thompson of Ginebra and former six-time winner June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer lead the national team training pool that also includes Japan B. League mainstays Kiefer Ravena, Thirdy Ravena, and Dwight Ramos, the Kings’ Japeth Aguilar and Arvin Tolentino, and TNT’s Roger Pogoy and JP Erram.
Other PBA cagers invited were Calvin Oftana of the Tropang Giga, NorthPort’s Jamie Malonzo, Kevin Alas of NLEX and Meralco’s Chris Newsome along with pool members Will Navarro, Francis Lopez, and Jordan Heading.
Reigning UAAP MVP Angelo Kouame of Ateneo, University of the Philippines’ Carl Tamayo, and Kevin Quiambao of La Salle were also named in the list released by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
The Philippine five is set to do battle on both road matches against Jordan on Nov. 10 and Saudi Arabia three days later.
Fil-Am NBA standout Jordan Clarkson and prized 7-foot-3 big man Kai Sotto are likely unavailable due to their commitments with their squads.
