MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) – Marcio Lassiter was the odd man out as the Philippines men’s national basketball team trimmed down its roster to 14 men ahead of its final preparations in Europe for the FIBA Qualifying Tournaments next month.
Leading the pack are Jayson Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, June Mar Fajardo, LA Tenorio, Japeth Aguilar, and Marc Pingris of the Gilas Pilipinas squads during the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship and the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
They are joined by Terrence Romeo and Calvin Abueva of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship squad, plus Ryan Reyes and former University Athletic Association of the Philippines most valuable player Bobby Ray Parks, Jr.
Andray Blatche will have his second tour of duty as the naturalized center for the squad.
Aside from Lassiter, also out of contention were Moala Tautuaa and Kiefer Ravena, who both failed to log in minutes during Gilas Pilipinas’ 81-70 win over Iran on Wednesday night.
The 14 players are essentially a lock as part of the squad set to compete in the Manila wildcard for the 2016 Rio Olympics, with the final two relegated to the reserved list.
Gilas Pilipinas Head Coach Tab Baldwin said that the coaching staff had a hard time deciding the fate of the 16 hopefuls heading into the 17-day trip to Europe.
“It’s probably one of the few things in life I’d like to run away from when I have to confront it,” said Baldwin following their game against Iran. “It’s the worst part of the job. I have done it many times and it’s not easy.” Diego de la Paz
