GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone looked at his players on the bench with fire in his eyes and took them to task.
“Our defense just quit, fellas. We’re only standing up. But when you get tired, this is the time when you get at it more, fellas,” Cone said in an expletive-filled huddle.
“Again, if you wanna play at this level, these are the things that you’re gonna have to do,” he added.
Cone spoke during a fourth quarter timeout in the Philippine five’s sorry 80-82 loss to Poland yesterday in its final tune-up game in Sosnowiece before the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament.
With Cone going bananas, Gilas naturalized star Justin Brownlee and Dwight Ramos scored on a three-pointer and a basket that pulled the Filipino cagers to within 67-76 after falling 62-74 with 5:05 to go.
Ramos boomed in eight markers on two triples and a step back jumper before a CJ Perez layup sliced Poland’s lead to two that stood as the final count.
Gilas shot itself in the foot with muffed free throws and turnovers, with Ramos and Chris Newsome missing a freebie each in the payoff period and the team throwing away the precious leather 23 times.
Cone’s outburst certainly smacks of his wards’ lack of desire as they also dropped a 73-84 setback to Tí¼rkiye in another friendly tiff last Friday in Istanbul.
“You can’t just play the way you want to play. You got to play on this level, and that means get down on guys, go ahead, chase them, run them, make the extra effort,” Cone said.
“If we’re not gonna make the extra effort, we can’t stop these guys.”
Gilas plunges in what appears to be a mission impossible when it takes on Latvia in Riga on Thursday midnight (Manila time).
The nationals wind up their OQT campaign against Georgia the next day at 8:30 p.m.
Brownlee paced Gilas with 30 points, while Ramos added 16 markers, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
Reigning seven-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo also had 10 points.
Ranked 37th in the world, Gilas must finish in the top two of its group to reach the crossover semifinals against the top two of Group B, which has No. 12 Brazil, No. 17 Montenegro, and No. 67 Cameroon.
The winners of the crossover semis will clash for the lone slot in the French capital.
Cone calls the shots for Ginebra in Asia’s first play-for-pay league where the Kings are known for their Never-Say-Die mantra. The national team now needs that, too.
