Norwood, Fil-foreign cagers join nat’l pool

By Nelson Beltran
The Philippine Star
Thursday, September 6, 2007

Gabe Norwood and two other Fil-foreign players are set to arrive in the next few days to join the Harbour Centre-RP pool but basketball godfather Mikee Romero said they’re still in search of big players to beef up the frontcourt of the team bound for the SEA Games in December.

Fil-Iranian 6-foot-1 guard Amir Javier Mazarei, a US NCAA Division III product featured by The STAR a few days back, will plane in Saturday to try it out with the team which has just returned from Brunei.

The national hopefuls, taking a two-day rest following a creditable showing in the seventh Brunei Cup, return to practice today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“Norwood assured us he’s coming this month. We have two other Fil-foreign guards coming in. The problem is we lack big men,” said Romero.

“If only Ranidel de Ocampo and Homer Se are released to us by the PBA during the SEA Games then we get Jervy Cruz (of UST) after the UAAP season, our problem is solved,” added Romero.

Air21 governor and team manager Lito Alvarez has offered his players to reinforce the Harbour Centre-RP quintet. But the release of the Express to the team needs PBA board approval.

“Our team is so small, we only have one player (Beau Belga) standing 6-foot-5 above. The rest are 6-foot-3 or below,” said Romero. “Surprisingly, they had a tough showing in the Brunei Cup against teams with imports. All our defeats were close ones.”

After the Brunei Cup, Romero intends to send the team to Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and possibly Korea for the needed international exposure. “The boys need to get used to playing international competitions,” he said.

But in the current pool, it seems only Belga, Jason Castro, Chad Alonzo, Dennis Daa, Christian Coronel and Allan Salangsang have the solid chance of making it all the way to the SEA Games.

Romero said they would take a look at Cruz, Jonathan Fernandez of NU, Pong Escobal of San Beda and Rico Maierhoper of La Salle at the end of the collegiate season.

“It would be great if somebody can ask Japeth Aguilar to take a break (in the US) and join us in the RP team in December. We really need to improve our ceiling,” said Romero.