GILAS Pilipinas Kings?
Having four Ginebra players on the national team training pool — despite what he described as a “condensed” schedule gnawing at the Kings in their campaign in the season-ending tourney — is just fine with coach Tim Cone.
“Most of our star players are on the Gilas team. They finish their games on the 27th and then 28th and on March 1, they’re back at it and play Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday again,” Cone, also a deputy to national coach Chot Reyes, said after his charges outlasted NLEX 114-111 last Wednesday night in the PBA Governor’s Cup that hiked their mark to 2-0.
“The schedule is really condensed for us and it’s really a tough thing that we’re gonna try to overcome that and the fact that you’re playing teams who have rhythm already.
“We were off for two weeks, or 10 days basically, and practiced five times so we’re basically struggling to find our rhythm,” he added.
Naturalized Filipino player and Ginebra import Justin Brownlee, reigning MVP Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, and Jamie Malonzo are fighting for inclusion in Reyes’ final 12-man line-up for the sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
Cone admitted winning the last Commissioner’s Cup crown at the expense of foreign guest team Bay Area also had its bane.
“The pitfalls of winning a championship– it’s great, super happy, but right after there’s a lot of pitfalls, the condensed schedule that we have,” he said.
“I think we started playing (last) Sunday, and then Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, then we play Friday and Sunday (next week).”
The wards of Reyes will take on Lebanon on Feb. 24 and Jordan three days later at the 55,000-seat Philippine Arena.
Gilas failed in its golden mission in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam last May and missed the quarterfinals of the FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta for the first time since 2007 last July.
The Filipino cagers ripped Saudi Arabia 76-63 last November 76-63 in Group E action of the fifth window in Jeddah.
Gilas also brought down Jordan 74-66 in Amman and improved to 5-3 heading into the final window.
