IT’S the same old woe that gnaws at Gilas Pilipinas and coach Tim Cone—the lack of player availability and time to prepare.
But with the FIBA Asia Cup still less than a month from now, Cone is not pushing the panic button, at least not just yet.
“Like I said, I don’t even know who’s showing up at this point,” Cone said. “We’re grasping at straws in terms of trying to figure out how to get practices in.
“But if we can get a core of six, seven, maybe eight guys, that would be good enough for now,” he added.
PBA MVP Scottie Thompson, CJ Perez, Jamie Malonzo, Chris Newsome, RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario, Carl Tamayo, and Dwight Ramos showed up during the Philippine five’s first practice since the third and final window qualifiers five months ago last Monday at the Upper Deck Sports Center in Ortigas, Pasig.
Thompson, Malonzo, Aguilar, Rosario, and Abarrientos’ Ginebra crew was ousted by Perez’s San Miguel Beer in Game 7 of the Philippine Cup semifinals last Wednesday night.
Perez and teammate June Mar Fajardo, the reigning eight-time pro league MVP, are expected to beef up Gilas along with Tropang 5G gunner Calvin Oftana once the Big Dance of the season-ending tilt winds up.
Naturalized star Justin Brownlee and 6-foot-10 center AJ Edu are also ready to boost the pool.
If and when there will be a do-or-die seventh tiff, it will be played on July 27 at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
The Nationals are set to face the Macau Black Bears in a tune-up game on July 28 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Rosario and Abarrientos were added to the pool along with Magnolia rising star Zavier Lucero and Rhenz Abando.
Pooled in Group D along with New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, and Iraq in the tilt formerly known as the ABC Championship and FIBA Asia Championship amid the gripping tension between the host country’s neighbors and Middle East powers Iran and Israel, Cone is convinced regaining their biggest trump card will spell the big difference—defense.
“We definitely looked at the video. We got caught by surprise, I think on our last trip out,” he said. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted so we wanted to remember that and keep it on our minds as we move forward here.
“So, we’re going to make some noise in the Asia Cup and it’s going to be because of our defense.”
