ATENEO de Manila’s 7-foot-1 center Kai Zachary Sotto leads Batang Gilas—the under-16 national basketball team—when they campaign in the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) U-16 Asian Championship from April 2 to 8 at the Lignan Pearl Gymnasium in Foshan, China.
Juniors national team Head Coach Mike Oliver said the Ateneo star will be a big boost in their quest to earn a berth in the Fiba U-17 World Cup 2018 in Argentina.
“We have a combination of size and speed, as well as the outside shooting,” said Oliver in the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum on Tuesday at Tapa King Araneta Center, Cubao. “We will definitely take Kai Sotto’s presence inside from time to time.”
“But we do not want to place pressure onto the boys. We will not promise anything, we’ll just take it one game at a time and see how far we can go,” added Oliver, who has MC Abolucion and John Arenas as assistant coaches.
Sotto, who recently steered the Ateneo Blue Eaglets to the UAAP Season 80 juniors title and becoming the Finals Most Valuable Player with 17 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.3 rebounds in a three-game championship series with National University, will prove his worth at the Asian stage this time, donning the Philippines jersey.
“My teammates and I are excited to represent the Philippines in this competition and we hope we can do well and advance,” Sotto said. “It will be difficult, but that’s part of the competition.”
Besides Sotto, Batang Gilas will be composed of the Southeast Asian Basketball tournament 2017 gold medalists Rafael Go, Raven Cortez, McLaude Guadaña, Terrence Fortea, Christian Calimag, Rence Padrigao and Shaun Geoffrey Chiu, as well as newcomers Jerick Kyle Baustista, Joshua Rafael Lazaro, Yukien Andrada and King Balaga.
The Philippines is grouped with powerhouse Australia and Malaysia in Group B, with only the top 4 countries out of 13 advancing to the World Cup 2018 in Argentina.
Other countries seeing action are China, New Zealand and Hong Kong in Group A; Iran, Chinese Taipei and Macau in Group C; and Korea, Japan, Lebanon and India in Group D.