GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said playing against Australia and New Zealand without Kai Sotto and Quentin Millora-Brown isn’t a losing cause, as he believes that they still have the pieces to compete against those higher-ranked squads.
Cone said the absence of the 7-foot-3 Sotto and 6-foot-10 Millora-Brown will force Gilas to go small in the two games, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t match up against the Boomers and the Tall Blacks.
“New Zealand and Australia, they are big teams, but they are not overly big,” he said. “They are not the Europeans where they have the seven-footers. They are big, but it doesn't strike a lot of fear into us in terms of their size.”
“We can still compete with our size despite the fact that we may come with a smaller team. Smaller, quicker, and more perimeter-oriented. Maybe that's the way you should go. Who knows?”
READ: Cone confirms QMB out for Gilas: 'He just chose not to come'
Based on Window 1 line-ups, Australia and New Zealand had an average height of 6-foot-6, while the Philippines had a 6-foot-5 average.
In lieu of Sotto and Millora-Brown, Justine Baltazar, who stands at 6-foot-9, has been included in the pool.
Philippines' familiar foes
Cone said Gilas is also familiar with the two teams, having faced them a couple of times over the years, especially New Zealand, a team that they beat during the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers last November 21, 93-89, at Mall of Asia Arena.
“We’re very familiar with their team already,” he said of New Zealand. “We’ve played them a lot. After not playing them for years, suddenly we’ve played them a lot in the last two years. We’ve played them four times in the last two years. We’re very familiar with them.”
“We’re less familiar with Australia, but we did get to play them in the FIBA Cup, and we’ll see who they can bring. They can bring 13 NBA players if they want to, but obviously the NBA is ongoing, so those guys won’t be playing. They've proven to be so formidable even without their NBA guys, so we'll see.”
Cone continued that, of course, defending homecourt will play a big factor for the coming FIBA window.
“We’re at home. I think the most important thing is that we’re at home. We’re defending our home court. I always say home court in front of our fans is by far the most important thing we ever do is playing in front of our fans and trying to defend our home court. That’s our attitude right now. Whatever it takes, we're going to defend our home court,” he said.
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