Gilas Pilipinas Men and Tim Cone are still waiting to begin preparations for what’s likely the national team’s toughest window in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Cone and his wards will be facing Oceania powerhouses New Zealand and Australia in a span of one week in two home games that could go a long way in determining the Philippines’ fate in terms of making the 2027 FIBA World Cup. Even so, Gilas Pilipinas still hasn’t begun preparing for the challenge at hand—at least not as a full squad just yet.
“Although the PBA has finished, we’re still waiting on our players from Japan and Korea to be released from their mother teams,” Cone told the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). “That won’t happen until the 16th when they begin to trickle in that week.”
Gilas Pilipinas Gets Limited Prep Time—Again
If Cone’s math is correct, that will leave Gilas Pilipinas with only 10 days to prepare as a team, which is hardly ideal considering the level of play traditionally displayed by the Tall Blacks and Boomers. But Cone, unsurprisingly, is defiant as he’s banking on something he always brings up every time fans and pundits clamor for a pool expansion: familiarity.
“That limits our prep time together,” Cone said of guys like Kevin Quiambao and Carl Tamayo arriving only in the next few days. “But these guys have been together for multiple tournaments and windows for the past two years, so the familiarity is mostly already there.”
Aside from Quiambao and Tamayo, Gilas and Cone are also still waiting on Dwight Ramos, AJ Edu, Quentin Millora-Brown, and possibly Kai Sotto. KQ, Tamayo, Ramos, Edu, and Sotto are all Gilas cornerstones, while Millora-Brown was added in Window 1.
Gilas players will start working out at the Upper Deck Sports Center in Ortigas before heading to Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna, once complete.
“We will go into Inspire when the team is totally intact, which is around the 20th, although we will begin practice earlier on the 16th with those already in Manila,” said Cone.
Gilas will first face New Zealand on February 26, followed by a showdown with Australia on March 1. Both games will be played at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
