The 2025 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) is only three months away, and Norman Black still needs at least four more names to complete the Gilas Pilipinas lineup that will defend the gold medal the glitters the brightest for the Filipino in Thailand.

Black recently revealed that he already had the commitments of eight players to fly to Thailand and represent the Philippines for the regional meet, and the four names he is looking for are big men playing in the UAAP.

The Meralco consultant has already made calls to those four players, but Black refuses to divulge their names at the moment.

At this point, all he needs are the approvals of the mother schools, and of course, the UAAP, which would have to do some tweaking in its schedule for the concerned schools.

“I have talked to the UAAP players. They have indicated that they would be willing to play if given the opportunity,” said Black.

“I’d rather not mention their names,” Black went on. “I mentioned the other names because they are already committed so I can come out and publicly say it, but I would not want to mention names who aren’t committed to us yet.”

Justin Brownlee, Ange Kouame, Ray Parks, Remy Martin, Matthew Wright, Dave Ildefonso, Jason Brickman and Veejay Pre have given their commitments to the SEAG squad.

Good news

The good news for Black is, at the very least, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and the UAAP have a very good relationship.

“The teams will have the discretion if they’ll lend their players [for the SEA Games] if ever, for now,” said executive director Rebo Saguisag a few weeks ago during the league’s preseason press conference at the University of Santo Tomas.

“The good thing here is, Erika Dy is a very good friend and we have constant communication. They understand our position.”

It has already happened in the past, when the league loaned Mike Phillips of La Salle, Jerom Lastimosa of Adamson and Ateneo’s former big Mason Amos for the 2023 Games, which the Philippines won over host Cambodia. INQ