FOR a change, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is not on the lookout for tune-up games but for more practice time, which makes a lot of sense.
“It looks like we’re going to play the Macau Bears, who don’t sound like a tough team, but they beat the Chinese national team. So, they’re really strong, they’ve got three imports, one of which might be Jeremy Lin. It could be a very, very interesting friendly for us,” Cone said on the Power and Play program hosted by former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala. “But in my mind right now, the friendlies are less important, playing games is less important for us than the practice time. We really need the practice time together.
“So, I’m not going out looking for a lot of practice games, I’m really looking to sink our teeth into practice, get our system going a little bit more,” he added.
The Nationals are eyeing to buckle down to work on June 30 in the lead-up to the FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Aug. 5 to 17, notwithstanding the gripping tension between the host country’s neighbors and Middle East powers Iran and Israel.
Cone is convinced scrimmages—or lack of them—spelled doom in their campaign in the Asia Cup qualifiers.
“I think we kind of got away from it in our last trip to the Middle East and down to New Zealand. We weren’t as tight as we needed to be because we didn’t have any practice time before that and we just played a bunch of games, so we’re trying to learn things on the fly as we go,” Cone said. “We really need to just kind of settle in and get some really strong practices where we can create better habits.
“Again, we’re back together, we know what we’ve got to do, but we’ve got to create those habits.”
While friendly matches can help prepare his wards, Cone sees enough time to fine-tune their game and jiving among the players will spell the big difference.
“Teams are coming from different systems when they come in, so it’s more than just refreshing, we’ve got to do more than that,” he said. “So, the practices I think are more important than the friendlies at this point. The friendlies to me are really for the fans. They will help a little bit, but really the practice is what’s going to help.”
