ALLAN THE MAN

The PBA on Wednesday announced the 17-player pool of the Philippine national men’s basketball team for its campaign in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament next year as the league reiterated its “full support” to Gilas Pilipinas.

Part of the list are reigning back-to-back MVP June Mar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter of San Miguel Beer; Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar and LA Tenorio of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel; Paul Lee, Jeff Chan and Gabe Norwood of Rain or Shine;

If the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) can ensure its full support, then the new Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) leadership may send a Philippine team to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament next year.

Outgoing SBP president Manny Pangilinan admitted that they have been reluctant to send an undermanned squad to compete in the Olympic qualifier next year, especially after the PBA failed to provide all the players the national squad needed during the recent FIBA Asia Championship.

“Hindi ko naman sinasabing 'no' pero let’s be realistic,” said Pangilinan in Reuben Terreado’s report in SPIN.

The Philippines continued to move up in the FIBA's world basketball rankings after the silver medal finish of Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA Asia Championship.

From 31st, the Philippines improved three spots to 28th place in the world rankings. The country also improved its standing in Asia, trailing just China (14th) and Iran (17th) and surging ahead of Jordan (29th) and South Korea (30th).

China and Iran have combined to win the last nine Asian championships dating back to 1999.

Watch  the Top 10 Plays for the recently concluded 2015 FIBA Asia Championship. Here they are, the 10 most spectacular plays of the Asia Championships 2015, featuring Andray Blatche (Philippines), Qi Zhou (China), Jasmon Youngblood (Lebanon), Hamed Ehadadi (Iran), Chih Chieh Lin (Chinese Taipei), Terrence Romeo (Philippines), Jianlian Yi (China) and Matthew Ganuelas (Philippines).

Three out of Top Ten plays came from Gilas Pilipinas National team.

Josh Torralba and Jeron Teng struck hard in the stretch as La Salle rallied from 15 points down to prevail over arch rival Ateneo, 80-76, in the UAAP Season 78 men’s basketball tournament before roaring 17,738 fans at the MOA Arena yesterday.

Torralba knocked it down from the corner to give La Salle the upperhand, then Teng took care of business at the line to put the finishing touches to the hard-earned win, their fourth in seven outings in the first round.

The victory propelled DLSU to a share of third with the Eagles.

With their runner-up finish in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship, the Philippine national men’s basketball team will have one of the three spots allotted for the Asian region in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament next year.

But Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Manuel V. Pangilinan believes that there is not much to gain from participating in the tournament and that the Gilas Pilipinas program should instead look ahead to the future.

“My view is that, I’m not saying we will get chosen for the wild card, but frankly my view is that we should opt out of it,” Pangilinan told InterAksyon.com in an interview.

After Gilas Pilipinas fell to China in the 2015 FIBA Asia Men's Championship gold medal match, Los Angeles Lakers' Fil-Am guard Jordan Clarkson quickly consoled Filipino basketball fans by voicing out his plan to suit up for the national team in 2016.

Clarkson posted on his Twitter account a video of himself going for a dunk with the caption: Tough Fight: In 2016, Jordan Clarkson and Gilas with the hashtags #AllIn #RoadToRedemption.