Guiao gives Raymundo time to think about his RP team plans

MANILA, Philippines – Kerby Raymundo is taking his sweet time deciding whether to rejoin the RP men’s basketball team or concentrate on his mother team’s title aspirations in the Philippine Basketball Association. But Yeng Guiao, the fiery mentor of the Powerade-RP team, remains unperturbed. He believes his ward will return and assume the leadership role while playing for flag and country. “I believe he’s coming back," Guiao told GMANEWS.TV. “He just needs some time to think about his decision and I think he just needs to take a rest to get himself ready mentally and physically in our tune-up matches and international tournaments lined-up this year." Guiao is not keen on filling up the spot vacated temporarily by Raymundo, who might become the RP team’s skipper and share the leadership role alongside veterans Asi Taulava and Mick Pennisi, the longest-tenured members of the national squad. But the 6’6, former Letran standout will have to make a decision before April when the RP team gets its baptism of fire against a crack team from the Australian National Basketball League – the Sydney Spirit. The Powerade-backed RP men’s basketball team will play a visiting Sydney Spirit squad in an exhibition match slated April 3-5 at the Araneta Coliseum. The Spirit will be bannered by former NBL Most Valuable Player and Sixth Man of the Year awardee Bruce Bolden and will be handled by Rob Beveridge, director of the Australian Institute of Sports. The exhibition match was made possible through constant communication by the PBA on the Spirit’s marketing manager, Marco Selorio, a Filipino based in Sydney. The exhibition match will be one of the series tune-up games the RP team will go through before plunging into action in major international events this year. The RP team will play in the PBA All-Star games, the first time an all-pro national squad will be joining the annual festivities since the 1998 Centennial team of coach Tim Cone. Cone will be at the helm of the South All-Stars this time while previous RP team head coach Chot Reyes will handle the North All-Stars. Both All-Star teams will be beefed up by three imports each. After its series of tune-up matches, the RP five will compete at the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA), the annual William Jones Cup in Taipei and the FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championshipm in China, which will serve as a qualifying event for the World Basketball Championship in Turkey next year. In the exhibition matches, Guiao is expected to utilize all 14 players. Japeth Aguilar, the former Ateneo stalwart and son of former Northern Consolidated and Ginebra San Miguel big man Peter Aguilar, will most likely become the 15th member. The younger Aguilar is still finishing his commitments with the Western Kentucky University in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association. “In the exhibition games, I am planning to use all of my players," said Guiao. “In the international events, we are only allowed to use 12. But again, I would like to stress that I have no plans of filling up the spot temporarily vacated by Kerby." Guiao said that he has slowly but surely resolved the attendance problem he had in the past months and the team has gradually built chemistry. “Ryan (Reyes) has just joined us recently. Konting pahinga lang and he will be back in his competitive form, but what I like about the team right now is we’re slowly but surely developing chemistry inside the court not to mention the off court bonding we’ve experienced the past few weeks," said Guiao. –GMANews.TV