Coach Chot Reyes assured that RJ Abarrientos and SJ Belangel remain under the radar of the national cage program.

The two players, who gave up their remaining years in the UAAP, decided to take their acts in South Korea and have been tearing it up there.

And that’s why fans are also curious as to why they were not in the 20-man talent pool released by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas from which the roster for the fifth window of the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers will be selected.

“All of the pool members are still on the radar,” Reyes said in a web-radio interview with PSC chairman Noli Eala on Saturday. 

“For now, we want to go to take a look at the guys that we have currently, the guys who are practicing now kasi sila ‘yung nagpapractice na eh. We want to take a look at that.”

Reyes said that Gilas is trying to further examine how Scottie Thompson and CJ Perez will fit in a system being tailor-made for the World Cup here next year.

“I have two games with Scottie Thompson pa lang and now, we are looking forward to having CJ Perez in the mix. When you do that, some guys have to take a backseat muna para makita muna natin how these guys are doing,” he said.

“As much as we want to, hindi puwedeng lahat sila nandoon. That’s what we are looking at right now,” added Reyes.