TIM Cone is keeping his fingers crossed that the outcome of Gilas Pilipinas’ friendlies in Doha, Qatar will spur the team in tough two games, both on the road, in the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
The past week had so far been brutal for the national squad, which played three games in five days during the 2nd Doha Cup Invitational.
And without a day’s rest, Gilas went back to Manila from Qatar and then departed for Chinese Taipei as it takes on the home team on Thursday at the Taipei Heping basketball gymnasium in its penultimate outing in the qualifiers prior to the tournament proper slated this August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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Cone referred to the Qatar friendlies as disappointing after going 1-2 in its duration, winning against the home team in its debut before losing by blowout to Lebanon and Egypt.
“We didn’t perform as well as we wanted to in Doha. Anytime, we’re playing on the world stage against other national teams, it’s very important that we win,” said Cone in an interview posted on the official Facebook page of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) shortly after Gilas held its final practice before its game against the Taiwanese.
“We’re hoping the Doha experience makes us better.”
While the Gilas mentor said the Doha friendlies were ‘a learning and development camp’ for the Filipinos, going through the process only toughened the national team for the great battles ahead.
“As much as they were important, they weren’t crucial. Now we’re in the crucial part of it. We’re coming here into Taiwan. It’s been tough,” said Cone.
“But as we said from the very beginning, we wanted it to be tough. We wanted it, I think that teams learn from adversity, teams learn when it’s really hard. That’s why you have hard practices, why you play tough opponents because that makes you better.”
After Chinese Taipei, Gilas departs for Auckland, New Zealand to take on the Tall Blacks anew.
Both the Philippines and New Zealand already clinched berths in the Asia Cup tournament proper.
Cone believes after the Doha sojourn, Gilas needs to get its acts together in the qualifiers’ final window where he believes the games mattered despite the Filipinos having already qualified for the Asia Cup.
“This is where we need to be locked in. We’ll find out,” he said. “Was that (Doha) too hard for us? Did it exhaust us too much for this? We’re hoping it’ll prime us into the Taiwan game.”
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