GILAS Pilipinas has began its preparations for the November games of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers on Friday, but the scouting for New Zealand started long before the national team gathered at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
National coach Tim Cone expects a tough outing against New Zealand under new coach Judd Flavell, who will be making his Tall Blacks debut away from home on November 21 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
READ Brownlee to play both Gilas games vs NZ and Hong Kong, says Cone
Gilas will also face Hong Kong on November 24, also at the MOA Arena.
“The difficult part is they do have a new coach,” said Cone. “The system is going to change a little bit. They are bringing over a little different personnel than they have from the past years, and little different from the World Cup [team] that came over here in 2023. They might be a little bit more difficult to prepare for.”
“Social media, video, and YouTube, there’s so much information to gather and we are in the midst of gathering that and we’ve got videos out to the players already,” Cone said.
There are familiar names in the New Zealand roster including veteran Corey Webster and former Converge import Tom Vodanovich.
Flynn Cameron, Izayah Le’afa, Hyrum Harris, Walter Brown, and Taylor Britt were part of the Tall Blacks team that competed in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Manila, while they have also called up a 17-year-old in Oscar Goodman.
New Zealand also took part in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Greece, where it had one win against Croatia but failed to get into the semifinals due to an inferior point difference in their group that also included Luka Doncic and Slovenia.
The Philippines will be looking to put up a more competitive match against a world-rated New Zealand side that defeated Gilas, 106-60, last June 30, 2022 during the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers in Auckland.
Cone expects a physical game against New Zealand, but also sees Gilas performing better than their previous encounter.
“They are the 22nd-ranked team in the world. That’s higher than the Georgia team that we played. Georgia is No. 24 in the OQT," Cone of the Georgia team which beat Gilas, 96-94, in the Olympic qualifiers in Riga, Latvia last July.
They are a tough, tough team. They are a physical team. They are a nation of rugby players. They know how to play physically. It’s a part of their culture. And it’s not personal. That’s the way they play. That’s something we are going to have to be conscious off,” said Cone.
“But I don’t think they’ve seen a team like the team we are assembling before. I think we have a shot at beating them and we certainly want to protect our home court and show ourselves and to our Gilas fans around the country.
"These are very important [games] to us. I really expect us to be ready and motivated to play,” Cone said.
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.
