THERE’S still a long way to go for Gilas Pilipinas and while it suffered a harrowing stint in the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, the charges of National coach Tim Cone should be fine.
“These windows are so short. We’re together so little. We were able to do a Doha trip before we came here just to try to get more time together and play more games, and it probably hurt us more than it helped us in terms of being ready for Taiwan and New Zealand,” Cone said. “But we were trying to look at a bigger picture in terms of the FIBA Asia coming up. We know we’re not going to have much time. We may be eight, ten days at most to come together and prepare for that tournament.
“So, everything we do, just like (New Zealand) coach Judd (Flavell) is saying, it’s cumulative. It’s cumulative experiences, so we’re trying to take each window as an experience and move it on to the next one and on to the next one and hopefully grow it and improve,” he added.
Cone spoke after the Philippine five yielded a 70-87 loss to New Zealand in its last Group B game last Sunday in Auckland.
The deflating loss was the Philippines’ second in row in the no-bearing round after an 84-91 defeat to Chinese Taipei also on the road Thursday last week and wound up with a 4-2 mark.
The Tall Blacks topped their bracket with a 5-1 card and like the Filipino cagers have already clinched a slot in the Asia Cup set in August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Without prized 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto (ACL), Gilas groped for form and Cone will have to find ways to make up for his ace big man’s absence.
“This one was important for seeding, so we really wanted to get that seeding, but that’s now going to go to New Zealand,” Cone said.
“We’re going to have a tougher road through that Cup, and that’s something that’s uppermost in our minds as well.”
But Cone and his wards should expect an all-out support from true-blue Filipino fans much like in over overseas sojourns.
“Like I said, they love basketball. It’s something I grew up with in the Philippines. It doesn’t surprise us when we’re out there,” he said. “Not only that, they’re great hosts. When they’re bringing food to the hotel, they’re escorting us around the city. I mean, it’s an amazing thing.”
