MANILA, 28 December — So there you are the first batch of Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players to the national pool that is preparing for the Pusan Asian Games next year has already been named by coach Ron Jacobs.

Sixteen of them to be exact.

The roster is oozing with height, heft and the hustle of, as expected, Fil-Am players, and the wisdom and experience of those who have already gone to the Asian Games in the past.

Indeed, they are united on one common goal — win the gold for the Philippines and the basketball-crazy Filipinos — in the Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea.

Conspicuously missing, though, in the initial list are legitimate point guards in the mold of Johnny Abarrientos and Olsen Racela undoubtedly two of the finest in their ranks today.

So where are Abarrientos and Racela? Or Patrick Fran, Boyet Fernandez and Paolo Mendoza, huh?

Is the Philippine team going to Pusan without a Johnny Abarrientos, an Olsen Racela, a Patrick Fran, a Boyet Fernandez or a Paolo Mendoza? Will the country send a national team without legitimate pointguards?

For there’s no single legitimate pointguard in the list of PBA players the 53-year-old American mentor announced would make up the two national pools that will see action in the PBA opening conference next year as part of their rigid preparation for the quadrennial games.

"To be fair to everyone, coach Ron (Jacobs) didn’t include point guards on the list which he submitted to the PBA board of governors," said Allan Caidic, who is helping Jacobs oversee the tryouts for national team candidates. "Johnny (Abarrientos) and Olsen (Racela) were not able to show up in the tryouts. Johnny was injured while Olsen played in the (Governor’s Cup) finals."

A many-time national player and currently coach of Ginebra, Caidic said Jacobs is inclined to tap the two, yet he still wants no less than five point guards to join the resumption of tryouts on Jan. 7.

Abarrientos and Racela plus some more other PBA stars are likely to be included to the pool through voluntary releases from their respective mother teams.

Jacobs said that Purefoods, Pop Cola, San Miguel and Talk ŒN Text have agreed to allow Fernandez, Abarrientos, Racela and Fran to join the tryouts.

"He (Jacobs) wants to give the remaining contenders for the pointguard spots equal chances," said Caidic, who was part of the Philippine team coached by Jacobs himself that won the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship in 1986 against China the country’s last major basketball regional crown.

Also expected to dispute the pointguard positions with Abarrientos and Racela, Fran, Fernandez and Mendoza is a hotshot amateur player named Mike Cortez from La Salle.

The tryouts for the Asiad started Dec. 10 and the talents came in abundance that Jacobs’ wish list for the Philippine team could easily assemble two teams and conduct a swift series of tryouts.

Close to four dozen players, majority of them from the PBA and a couple of unknowns flooded the court hoping to impress Jacobs whose big task at hand is to help the Philippines regain the basketball supremacy in Asia from the hands of the mighty Chinese team.

In fact, some 46 players, including standouts from the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) and the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) and collegiate leagues, laced up and participated in scrimmages during a series of tryouts.

Jacobs has been given a deadline to name the 18 PBA players but he will be adding some more to complete two teams which will participate in the regular PBA tournament next year.

He hopes to come up with 24 players that will be divided into two teams that will see action in the season-opening Commissioner’s Cup starting Feb. 10. From the 24, he will pick the 12 players and at least two alternates who will make the national team for the Asian Games.

To meet the deadline set by the PBA board of governors, Jacobs forwarded the initial list recently most of them very much expected, including Fil-Am standouts Eric Menk, Asi Taulava, the Seigle brothers Danny and Andy, Ali Peek, Rudy Hatfield, Davonn Harp and Noy Castillo.

Jacobs also tapped Danny Ildefonso, who recently won his second Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy, Mick Pennisi, Chris Jackson, Kenneth Duremdes, Marlou Aquino, Dennis Espino, Jeffrey Cariaso, Don Camaso and Edward Juinio.

Cariaso, Duremdes, Aquino Cariaso and Juinio have already been members of Asiad teams in the past.

Considered the biggest casualty in the tryouts was the sensational Mark Caguioa of Ginebra, this year’s top rookie, who failed to impress Jacobs.

Jacobs said that Caguioa failed to make the cut because "his defense was not adequate."

"Although he (Caguioa) was the only player in the tryouts that could penetrate, nothing happened against the big men and as a result he made some bad decisions," said Jacobs, "and his defense was not adequate because of his size." Jacobs added that Caguioa’s Ginebra teammate, JayJay Helterbrand, and Fil-Am rookie Miguel Noble "came very close" to making it to the pool.

He, however, expressed disappointment that Fil-Ams John Arigo of Alaska and Michael Hrabak of Shell, among the first to express their interest in trying out for the national team, have not been released by their respective ballclubs for the tryouts.

Jacobs said he didn’t want to name Arigo to the pool because Alaska already has two players in the list.

Jacobs, who is Ginebra Kings’ consultant, carried out the difficult job of dismissing players, telling them diplomatically that they’re not being considered for the national pool. Clearly, it showed in the decreasing number of applicants as the tryouts progressed.

"Certain guys were told that they were not being considered," he explained. "They just didn’t fit into the plan."

The brilliant bench taskmaster is expected to name a few collegiate standouts to the pool before he cuts that down to one team for the Commissioner’s Cup which will be the team’s final preparation for the the Games set in September.

Also to be invited to join the next tryouts are Romel Adducul, John Ferriols, Omanzie Rodriguez, Chris Calaguio, Raffy Reavis and Chris Clay of the MBA along with collegiate standouts Ren-Ren Ritualo.

The multi-titled Jacobs, who has won for the country a number of regional crowns in the early 80s, said he is also checking out a couple of players who have signed up for the PBA rookie draft.

One of them, Robert Johnson, who attended the final day of tryouts at the Ateneo gym, has been asked to return.

Also being checked out are Francis Navales Rauschmayer from the IMG BasketballAcademy under former NBA star Robert Parish and Leo Yanagacio who played for Rutgers, an NCAA Division I team in the US.

Jacobs is pleased with what he has seen during the tryouts, particularly seeing the burning desire in the faces of the players to make the necessary sacrifices in their bids to join the national pool.

But he failed to see the one type of player he exactly wanted all along, and he is aching to have in his lineup someone in the mold of Caidic.

"I didn’t see an Allan Caidic out there," said Jacobs who is particularly looking for a Caidic-like shooter who is expected to be the team’s go-to-guy.

Sadly, none of those who took part in the tryouts fitted the type of player Jacobs always had in the national teams he handled in the past.

"There was a lot of isolation, one-on-one plays, something that you can’t do in Asian Games. But there was no shooter. There was no Allan Caidic out there," he said.

Oh, by the way, Caidic was there during the tryouts, but not as a player. He was there helping Jacobs conduct the tryouts. He was part of the Ginebra coaching staff that volunteered their services.

"Against big men, particularly the Chinese, we can’t penetrate every time. We need to move the ball well from one side to another and shoot jumpers. That’s why we badly need a player someone like Caidic," he said.

Being eyed in the next tryouts are San Miguel’s Dondon Hontiveros, who is being compared to Caidic owing to his deadly pair of shooting hands. His shooting touch, however, deserted him during the first rounds of tryouts.

Likewise, Ritualo, regarded as the best shooter from the amateurs, is highly considered for the next national pool.

Earlier, the PBA board of governors has granted the request of Jacobs for him to name 18 players to the candidates pool instead of 16 as originally suggested by the board and to push back the deadline for naming the players from Dec. 17 to 22.

Jacobs said the reason for his request was that several players are right now on the injured list while others may have to undergo surgery at the end of the season.

Jacobs cited the case of Peek who underwent knee surgery and San Miguel Beer’s Ildefonso and Racela who will go under the knife early next year.

Jacobs also said that Castillo, Fernandez and Jackson were among the candidates who are nursing injuries aside from the Seigle brothers.