GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone expressed his appreciation for Juan Gomez De Liano, Jamie Malonzo, and Troy Rosario after they came short of making the 12-man roster for the first window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
Cone noted how the trio helped Gilas in its week-long camp while waiting for Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao, who came in late owing to their duties with their respective team in the Korean Basketball League, and big man AJ Edu who failed to show up for the entire training after getting married in the US.
Unfortunately, Cone and his coaching could only bring 12 players in Gilas’ opening game against Guam this weekend that tough selections had to be made.
READ Malonzo, Rosario, Juan GdL out of Gilas 12 for Guam qualifier
“Those three guys were amazing,” said the veteran coach. “That’s why it’s so important that Troy and Juan and Jamie be there because they gave us a full complement of players in which to practice with.”
Cone though pointed out, Juan GDL and Co. remain very much part of the pool despite not making the Gilas 12 final roster.
“They were cut for the window today, but they are not cut from the program,” stressed the Gilas coach. “They’re still very much part of the pool, the three of them.”
In particular, Cone mentioned Gomez De Liano, the star rookie of Converge FiberXers, as one who’s expected to crack the national team roster in the not so near future.
Juan a 'future Gilas player'
“Juan is a future Gilas player. I mean he’ll be on the team at some point,” said Cone. “It just happened that at this time, he’s still new to the system. But what we did to him was that we laid the foundation for Juan in terms of him learning the system this time and then be able to go with it the next time.
“But he’s going to be a fixture in this team. Instead of saying ‘We’re sorry to Juan,’ it’s like ‘Congratulations, Juan.’ You proved your worth. You’re going to be on this team, no doubt about it. He really is a stud.”
Cone also lauded Rosario and Malonzo, his current and former Barangay Ginebra players, who are always on call whenever national team duties are at stake.
“Troy is always amazing. I see him every day at Ginebra practices. He never takes a moment off, he plays incredibly hard all the time, which really elevates everybody around him. He push a lot of our guys that probably won’t be pushed as hard because he plays so hard.”
As for Malonzo, who was originally part of the Gilas 12 under Cone, the Gilas mentor describes him as ‘incredibly motivated.’
“He worked really, really hard. It was a really tough decision because he practice really well,” said Cone of the power forward out of La Salle.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
