SMART Gilas Pilipinas 2 is once again placed in a tough bracket in the 24th Dubai International basketball tournament beginning on Thursday.

Host United Arab Emirates (UAE) joining them in Group B along with Mouttahed Tripoli of Lebanon and the Aramex club from Jordan.

Group A, on the other hand, is composed of Al Riyadi and Sagesse Beirut, both from Lebanon, the UAE national team and Almaty of Kazakhstan.

Chot Reyes, the new head coach of Smart Gilas Pilipinas, said that the Dubai tournament will enhance the skills and improve the cohesiveness of the team particularly the members of the cadet pool.

“All the other teams are strong because they have imports. The players are trying hard but too much unfamiliarity to overcome with too little time,” said Reyes, noting that the team will leave for Dubai on Tuesday.

The 13-man Smart Gilas 2 roster is made up of naturalized player Marcus Douthit, Greg Slaughter, Jay-R Reyes, KG Canaleta, Ronjay Buenafe, Jake Pascual, Ronald Pascual, Kevin Alas, RR Garcia, Garvo Lanete and Filipino-Americans Isaac Holstein, Matthew Rosser and Justin Melton.

Al Ahli, who lost to Lebanon’s Anibal in last year’s finals of the tournament, will have three imports in Leemire Goldwire, Leroy Hurd and Cheikh Samb.

Mouttahed Tripoli will parade American imports guard Kevin Houston and six-foot-nine forward Marc Saylers and Lebanon national team members Rony Fahed and Roy Samaha.

Smart Gilas will take a bye at the start of the tournament before meeting Mouttahed Tripoli on January 11 and Al Ahli the following day then Sporting Aramex on January 14.