GILAS Pilipinas welcomes with open arms longer preparation time for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Coach Tim Cone revealed on Saturday that the national team will begin its build-up for the Asia Cup on June 30, at the earliest, through weekly Monday practices before ramping up activities with a training camp in Clark.
The initial plan was for Gilas to start practices on July 27 - or after Game 7 of the PBA 49th Season Philippine Cup finals. But with Cone’s desire for more practice time, the Philippine team will now begin the preparation much earlier, regardless of whether or not his club team Barangay Ginebra reaches the PBA finals.
READ: Cone hopes for much more practice time for Gilas before Asia Cup
“We are going to have a Zoom with all the players on Monday to go over the practice schedules. We are trying to get some Monday practices before we actually come together,” said Cone during the Power and Play program of former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.
Cone said he will supervise Gilas practice if the Gin Kings don’t make the all-Filipino finals.
“We will start sometime during the finals. If I’m not in the finals, then I will obviously coach the practices. But if I’m in the finals, then we will get Richard [Del Rosario] and Sean Chambers to handle the practices while I’m still with Ginebra," Cone said.
"We are trying to get maybe about, if we can, 18 practices together including two-a-day practices. We are hoping to get 18 practices including friendlies before we actually get into the first game proper on August 5th,” he added.
Brownlee back in harness for Gilas
Justin Brownlee is also expected to join the nationals' first training session, as he has now recovered from the thumb injury he sustained during the Commissioner’s Cup finals.
“We are hoping that he will be here by June 30 which is our first Monday practice. He should be here sometime this week, we are hoping,” said Cone.
Overseas-based players Dwight Ramos, Carl Tamayo, and Kevin Quiambao are already in their respective offseasons, and will also join the weekly sessions.
Cone is looking forward to making the most of the practice time Gilas now has, something that they didn’t have during the previous FIBA window in February where they lost their Asia Cup qualifying games against New Zealand and Chinese Taipei.
“In my mind right now, playing games is less important for us than the practice time. We really need the practice time together. So I’m not going out, looking for a lot of practice games. I’m really looking to sink our teeth in to practice, get our system going a little bit more again,” Cone said.
“I think we kinda got away from it in our last trip to the Middle East and down to New Zealand. We weren’t as tight as we needed to be because we didn’t have any practice time before that. We just a played a bunch of games and we are trying to learn things on the fly as we go. We really need to settle in and get strong practices where we can create better habits,” he continued.
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.
