The SMART-Gilas Pilipinas national team will travel to Taipei on Friday to compete in the annual William Jones Cup basketball tournament,..

...one of two international tilts lined up for the squad before it plunges to action in the 2011 FIBA-Asia championship in September.

SMART-Gilas coach Rajko Toroman said that the Jones Cup, slated August 6 to 14 at the Sinjhuang Stadium, New Taipei City, and the four-team pocket tournament in Doha, Qatar from August 24 to 29, will help “toughen up” his team.

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“This will be a big test for us,” Toroman told InterAKTV. “Our objective is to make it to the top three of the Jones Cup and top two in the tournament in Doha.”

“These tournaments will be a good workout before we plunge to action in the FIBA Asia tournament. I think we are very competitive in FIBA-Asia and the only question is how the PBA guys will blend in with us and if we will have enough games before FIBA.”

Nine teams will see action in the Jones Cup, including two-time FIBA-Asia champion Iran, which is bannered by 7-foot NBA center Hamed Haddadi, 7-foot-3 center Jaber Rouzbahani, top scorer Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, and point guard Mahdi Kamrani.

Also competing in the Jones Cup are the national teams of Jordan, Japan, host team Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and South Korea, which will be coached by the legendary Hur Jae.

Hur Jae, a deadshot shooter, is familiar to Filipino fans for his numerous stints with the South Korean national team that battled Philippine squads bannered by stars such as Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, and Alvin Patrimonio, among others. The Korean deadshot still holds the record for points scored in the FIBA World Championships, when he tallied 60 points in a 117-115 win against Egypt in 1990.

SMART-Gilas will be without Kelly Williams, Jimmy Alapag, and Ranidel de Ocampo for the Jones Cup. The three players are still playing in the PBA for the Grand Slam-seeking Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, which booked a seat in the 2011 Governors’ Cup finals last Friday.

But Toroman said Williams, Alapag and De Ocampo will be able to join the team in the Doha tournament, where the Filipinos will go up against national teams of Qatar, Lebanon and Syria.

“By that time, the three PBA players will be able to join us in the Doha tournament and that’s the only time we will become complete. We will try to get more games as possible to get them fitted to the system,” added Toroman.





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Source: Reynaldo Belen -InterAKTV