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Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone wants to stick with the current 15-man pool after the Filipinos stayed unbeaten in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers
MANILA, Philippines – Tim Cone is inclined to keep Gilas Pilipinas’ pool the way it is, but he is not closing his doors to possible changes as long as they benefit the team.
Cone said he wants to keep the current 15-man roster intact after the Philippines stayed unbeaten in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers with a home sweep of New Zealand and Hong Kong in the second window this November.
Sitting at the top of Group B with a 4-0 record, the Philippines secured its Asia Cup berth even with two games left to play in the third and final window in February next year.
“I am less likely to want to increase the pool. I think the more you increase the pool, the more teaching you have to do,” said Cone.
“If you can keep a core going all the time and really focus on that core, keep it a tight group, then that core is going to get better.”
Cone has made minimal alterations over the past year after putting together an original 12-man pool comprised of Justin Brownlee, June Mar Fajardo, Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, Scottie Thompson, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu, and Jamie Malonzo.
The 66-year-old mentor added national team mainstay Japeth Aguilar to address personnel woes as the squad missed Fajardo and Edu due to injuries in the first window last February.
With the crew still dealing with a string of injuries, Cone tapped Mason Amos for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July.
The latest addition to the roster is naturalized big man Ange Kouame, whom Cone brought in as a backup for Brownlee for the second window.
Maintaining a compact pool has worked wonders, with the Philippines beating New Zealand for the first time ever by way of a 93-89 win on November 21 and coasting to a 93-54 drubbing of Hong Kong on November 24.
“If you start expanding the pool, you have to go back to zero and start teaching all over again everything that you’ve taught,” Cone said.
“So, if you bring 20 guys in, you have to teach 20 guys how to do things in four or five days, and it gets really hard. So it’s better if we can tighten up.”
Cone, though, welcomes adjustments that will push the team to a higher level.
“Everything is going to be assessed by year end. But hopefully everybody, all the higher-ups, are pleased with what’s been going on and they’re going to want to keep a continuous program going,” Cone said.
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t make a tweak here or there, personnel-wise, system-wise, whatever. We could very easily make a tweak here and there, anything that could make us better moving forward.”
Eyeing a sweep of the Asia Cup Qualifiers, the Philippines will go on the road against New Zealand and Chinese Taipei in the third window. – Rappler.com
