It's good to be right.
Last December 4, this blogger named Rain Or Shine's Raymond Almazan as one of the GILASables (players who should be accorded an invite to the Gilas 4.0 pool). (Read the article here)
Last December 4, this blogger named Rain Or Shine's Raymond Almazan as one of the GILASables (players who should be accorded an invite to the Gilas 4.0 pool). (Read the article here)
Last Monday, Almazan’s game long brilliance was
the key to the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters cruising past the suddenly
toothless Talk ‘N Test Tropang Texters to make their way into the seminfinal
round. Almazan shone with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots while making
life extremely difficult for the Texters’ duo of promising big men Moala
Tautuua and Troy Rosario (both, incidentally, are part of the Gilas pool)
After the game, this happened.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Bye-bye, Ian Sangalang. He was one of the most
surprising picks made by Tab Baldwin, seeing as he was coming off an
injury-filled year and had not played in a long while. But his height (always a
big factor when talking about international basketball), his varied skill set
and his potential was enough for Baldwin to take a gamble.
Two months after informal practices had begun,
Sangalang has earned the dubious distinction of being the Gilas invitee who
barely showed up to the once-a-week practices. What made it worse was the
coaching staff seems to have no idea why he seems so disinterested. Some point
to his past history with injuries, others to the tension-filled relationship
the SBP has with the SMC teams.
Whatever Sangalang’s actual reason may be, his
absences may have been enough to spur Baldwin into looking for other options
that fulfill very specific needs. And while Almazan’s game is closer to Japeth
Aguilar’s while Sangalang’s is nearer to Ranidel de Ocampo’s, I think it’s safe
to say that Almazan has overtaken Sangalang in the race for one of those 12
coveted Gilas roster spots.
And if Almazan continues improving, who’s to say
whose spot he might be gunning for next?
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Email: SportadoBlogger@gmail.com
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