McGill star Anthony in Tokyo with Philippines national squad

MANILA, Philippines -- Sean Anthony, a senior with the McGill basketball Redmen, has been invited to Tokyo this weekend to play for “Smart-Gilas”, a national developmental team of the Philippines, for a series of exhibition games against the Japanese national squad.

The 6-foot-4, 204-pound forward from Vancouver, B.C., was a four-time all-star at McGill. A graduating physical education major, Anthony was invited by Noli Eala, the team’s executive director, to join a training camp in Las Vegas last April and coach Rajko Toroman was impressed with his overall skills and strong knowledge of the game.

Eala indicated this week that Anthony, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound forward, could play a pivotal role in the Philippines bid to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

“Sean played in a scrimmage between Filipino-Americans and Smart-Gilas in Las Vegas and he impressed with good shot selection, tough defence and overall court sense,” said Eala. “He’s still learning and adjusting to coach Rajko’s system. He also played in our games against the “Red Bull” and “Talk ‘N Text” teams, where he (contributed) good quality minutes.”

Anthony, 23, averaged 15.4 points and 7.4 rebounds with the Redmen during the recently completed university season. He finished his varsity career as McGill’s fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,834 career points in 152 games for an average of 12.1 per contest. A highlight of his campaign was a 33-point, 14-rebound performance McGill’s 101-98 upset over No.3-ranked Windsor on Oct. 13.

Anthony’s mother is Filipina. “When I was a kid, I’d spend all my summers in the Philippines,” he said. “I also hang out with the Filipinos (in Vancouver) so adjusting to the (Filipino) culture won’t be difficult.” Anthony’s dream is to someday play in the Philippine Basketball Association.

Among the other players with the team for the upcoming series in Japan are import CJ Giles, J. V. Casio, Dylan Ababou, Greg Slaughter, Jason Ballesteros, Mac Baracael, Magi Sison, J. R. Cawaling, Mark Barroca and Aldrech Ramos.

With basketball scratched out of the Southeast Asian Games calendar this year, Eala said there are more than enough tournaments to keep the Smart-Gilas team busy.

First is the PBA Philippine Cup where the developmental squad will be a guest entry. In November, the team may return to play an invitational tournament in Nanning, southwest China – Smart-Gilas ruled the eight-team event last year. In December, Toroman’s squad may see action in the prestigious Haarlem tourney in Holland.

“Our big test will be in the Asian Games in Guangzhou late next year and we’ll probably join the Jones Cup in July before then as a warm-up,” said Eala.

“We plan to train in Australia, China, Serbia and the US. We’re hoping to learn defense from the Australians and get more familiar with the Chinese game. Iran has been invited to play in the NBA summer league and we’d like to play there, too. There’s a tournament against Middle East teams in Dubai in January and that will be another familiarization process. We want our team to be exposed to as many national teams as possible.”

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Earl Zukerman Communications Officer Athletics & Recreation McGill UniversityMontreal, QC  514-398-7012 (Tel.)