College players can keep Gilas program running

A deeper talent pool from the collegiate ranks can keep the Pilipinas-Smart Gilas basketball program running well beyond the 2012 Olympic Games.

Gilas coach Rajko Toroma gave this assessment as he called for the extension of the national team program for basketball after the London Games.

Toroman said the national team will have a wider talent base, with or without him around, if the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) extends the program which was established to enable the country to qualify for the Olympics.

"This is a great and unique program and this program gave the Philippines a lot of good players that is why everything has to extend," said Toroman in Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.

The Serbian mentor said Gilas members Greg Slaughter of Ateneo and Aldrech Ramos of Far Eastern University, along with National University's Bobby Ray Parks and FEU's RR Garcia
could someday join the Philippine team.

Toroman believes a team that has the four collegiate players in its roster can also be better in a few years time.

"They have to join the national team so that they have a chance to expand their game and join international competitions," said Toroman, who steered Iran to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Toroman, whose contract ends in 2012, said the team can even target the 2013 FIBA-Asia Championship, which is a qualifier for the 2014 FIBA World Championship in Barcelona, Spain. "We will have a better chance of making it there."

"With or without me, it doesn't matter. I think that the Philippines will have a respectable team not only in Asia but in the world in the future," Toroman added.

Toroman is leading Gilas' preparations in the 33rd R. William Jones Cup in August before the team competes in the FIBA Asia Championship.

The Philippines' fourth-place finish in the recent FIBA Asia Champions Cup keeps Toroman hopeful that the team can contend against Asian powerhouses China, Iran, Jordan and South Korea.

The national squad will compete in the 2011 FIBA-Asia Championship in Wuhan, China this September.

Reuben Terrado, GMA News