Wanted: Big man for Gilas

Gilas Pilipinas is looking at a few personalities to boost the national team who has been playing depleted in the third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

The national team played without naturalized big man Ange Kouame in the loss to New Zealand and the team was further cut down to just 10 after Dave Ildefonso sat out at Gilas home win against India, leaving the team with two more slots to fill in with the FIBA Asia Cup kicking off on July 12.

Stand-in head coach Nenad Vucinic mentioned the names of B League imports Thirdy Ravena and Ray Parks as among the players they hope to add to the current crop that already has Kiefer Ravena, Dwight Ramos, Rhenz Abando, SJ Belangel and RJ Abarrientos, among others.

“We played with 10 players because Dave Ildefonso is out, he will not go to the Asia Cup. Right now, I’m not sure if we are going to have more than 10 players. We are hoping to have Thirdy Ravena and Ray Parks in the team. It’s good to have a full 12,” said Vucinic in the aftermath of its 79-63 victory over India on Sunday.

However, the gaping hole in the middle is one of the issues Vucinic wanted to address heading to the Asia Cup where they are facing New Zealand and India anew along with Lebanon in the group stage.

Geo Chiu was the only legitimate center in Gilas’ current lineup with Will Navarro and Carl Tamayo sliding to the fourspot from time to time to help in manning the paint.

“We are in a situation that we are playing unbalanced as a team. We don’t really have enough size, enough big guys that we can rotate. We are playing William Navarro out of position as a big guy so it is difficult because of the composition of the team,” added Vucinic.

“We have played the same lineup for a month as well and we have to continue to find ways to make up for the lack of size. That has to go to the defensive end,” he furthered.