TIM Cone accepted the blame for Gilas Pilipinas’ two blowout losses to South Korea in their Suwon friendlies heading to the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya.
But at the same time, he said there’s still enough period to adjust and there's no need to push the alarm button just yet.
READ Gilas gets smashed by Korea national team again in Suwon tune-ups
“Me and our staff will be better, and we’ll be better in helping our players prepare for what’s ahead,” said Cone as he looked back on the pair of losses the national team suffered at the hands of the South Koreans.
“No need to panic.”
On Sunday, Gilas absorbed a 69-42 beating from the same team that is also bound for the Asiad.
The 27-point blowout came just two days after the Koreans also whipped the Filipinos, 81-55, in the first of their two-game Hana Bank Invitational friendlies at the Suwon KT Sonicboom Arena.
Gilas struggled with its shooting in both games and obviously hasn’t showed yet the same cohesion displayed by the Korean team that has been playing together for almost a year now.
“Korea was a tough team, the same team that has played the four FIBA windows,” Cone noted. “We obviously couldn’t approach their level of execution and knowledge of each other.”
Unlike Korea which is playing the same core that competed in the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers last week, the Philippines opted to send a Gilas team to the Asiad that's different from the one that saw action in the window.
RJ Abarrientos, Justin Baltazar, and Justin Arana were the only remnants of the Gilas FIBA team that were added to the team that will defend the men's basketball gold medal in Nagoya.
But the back-to-back losses, according to Cone, are on him and the Gilas coaching staff.
“These losses weren’t on the players, it was on us as a coaching staff. We haven’t figured out how to best use the skills of our guys… yet,” he said.
The entire Gilas side will leave for Nagoya on Monday - three days basketball competitions in the Asiad kicks off on Sept. 10.
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