GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is now setting his sights on the final two tune-up games in preparation for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament which will definitely provide the national team a great test.
The Nationals are now in Istanbul to continue their build-up for the OQT, and on Thursday (Friday Philippine standard time), they will be battling Turkey, a team that is preparing for the Eurobasket 2025 qualifiers.
Also on the Gilas schedule is Poland, a team it will face on June 29 in Sosnowiece after the Istanbul stop.
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Cone said Gilas will definitely get a test in the two tune-up games, expecting a full-strength line-up from opponents who are also preparing for FIBA competitions.
“Poland is No. 15 in the world so they’ll give us a real good feel and Turkey is No. 24 but they are much better with their NBA guys. I don’t know if their NBA guys are going to show up because they are not preparing for the OQT,” said Cone.
“Poland is preparing for the OQT in Valencia but Turkey is preparing for the Euro qualifiers. They may have their full team there. But we will see, should be a good indication of where we are by the time we go to Riga. That’s the idea,” Cone added.
Cone welcomes competitive game against Mustangs
Before leaving for their European training, Gilas Pilipinas already had a tune-up game in their bag after they beat Taiwan Mustangs, 74-64, last Monday at the Philsports Arena.
Cone welcomed the competitiveness of the match where a victory was not given on a silver platter.
“We need it to be hard. We didn’t want it to be easy. If it’s easy, it’s not gonna help us. This was hard and we were really happy it was hard,” said Cone.
Cone said the Mustangs, who are preparing for The Asian Tournament, were throwing different coverages on defense that made Gilas simulate game situations during the friendly.
The task of trying to contain the Mustangs’ 7-foot-6 center Sam Deguara was also welcomed by Cone as part of the preparation against taller and heftier players from Latvia and Georgia that Gilas will face in the OQT.
“We were not concerned about winning or losing the basketball game. We want to play a certain style and they (Mustangs) did a really good job of throwing a lot of jump defenses at us – zones and box-and-ones – things we really haven’t been prepared for because we’ve only been practicing for three days,” said Cone.
“But we’ve worked hard on the defensive side. (Samuel) Deguara, their big guy, he is a load for everybody. He took a lot of space offensively. He took a lot of space defensively and really caused us some problems. But this is exactly what we need,” said Cone.
As Gilas training shifts gears in Istanbul, Cone said there is still a lot of work to do as they now look forward to the tune-up games in Europe.
“We still have a lot of work but we got tough. That’s the whole idea why we are playing now. It’s because we have a lot of work to do ahead of us. That’s why we are playing friendlies in Turkey and friendlies in Poland. Hopefully, we can just continue to get better and better as we move forward,” said Cone.
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