CHICAGO - After losing to Lebanon and Egypt by a combined 52 points at the 2nd Doha Cup Invitational, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone was quick to minimize the debacles as "truly, you know, practice games."
With that train of thought, I wonder how seriously Gilas took that desert sortie. Which is disturbing because anything less than a winning mindset would have been a disservice to the Filipino fans who watched our national team getting peeled like cheap paint off the floors of the QU Sports and Events Center.
READ Cone takes blame for Gilas shock loss to Chinese Taipei
In a video posted by the Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas (SBP) last Wednesday, Cone dismissed the Doha defeats as "nothing to do with the qualifiers or our world ranking or anything."
As they left Doha, the concurrent Ginebra coach emphasized that the showdown against Chinese-Taipei was "crucial" in a way that, "we're trying to erase all the bad juju that happened to us in the Middle East."
It also had world rankings and Asia Cup seedings implications.
NIGHTMARE IN TAIWAN.
No worries, Chinese-Taipei, which Gilas beat by 53 points last year, was supposed to be target practice, the balm that sanitizes the ugliness in Qatar.
Instead, there was a brutal Shanghai surprise in Taiwan where Gilas suffered a stunning 91-84 upset at the hands of a neighbor that hadn't beaten us since 2016.
This gigantic choke job set the clock back for Gilas at least years, darting back to the post-Tab Baldwin era.
Whatever momentum we gathered after the Asian Games and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) are gone now. Buried under the pile of Taipei's 15 triples.
Deservedly so, we gave Cone and the SBP the entire flower shop for their successes last year, but coaches and federations are only as good as their last game.
PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND
Unfortunately, it's been three games of unbearable dreck.
Except for three holdovers, Taipei paraded a new team, did SBP scout them? Or did our federation take them for granted given our previous one-sided triumph?
How the hell did we lose to a 79th-ranked team that is 45 notches below us in the hoops totem pole?
A large part of it is the hubris of Tim Cone, his insistence on a shallow pool, the reluctance to tap a talented, albeit raw bench, and the excessive reliance on Justin Brownlee.
If coach Chot Reyes had driven this three-game wreck, he would have been crucified today, even though Black Friday is still 58 days away.
The criticisms on Cone and SBP should also sear like raw, bleeding ribeye steak on a hot skillet.
We say that not to be mean. We say that only because the Gilas fans' pain demands accountability.
Cone did take responsibility over the Chinese-Taipei tragedy today, which is a good thing.
But Gilas needs changes more than apologies.
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