After some drama over which big men are playing or not, Gilas Pilipinas is now ramping up preparations for the second window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. That’s after players from the KBL and Japan B.League finally arrived to join the team on Friday for its first full practice with a complete lineup.
“It was the first time in practice that we had a complete pool outside of Kai Sotto. QMB [Quentin Millora-Brown] came in, KQ [Kevin Quiambao] came in, Carl [Tamayo] came, all came in and joined our first practice [at the SM Mall of Asia Arena],” said Cone.
Millora-Brown, Quiambao, and Tamayo joined fellow exports Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu, who arrived earlier and already linked up with naturalized import Justin Brownlee and PBA players Scottie Thompson, RJ Abarrientos, Troy Rosario, Chris Newsome, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Calvin Oftana, Juan Gomez de Liano, and new addition Justine Baltazar.
Tim Cone Touts Gilas Continuity . . . Again
Gilas’ return to full-strength preparation, according to Tim Cone, is “just more of a refresh,” as he once again touted having an intact team that knows the system already.
“That was the whole point when I was talking to the team about this program where you try to keep the team intact. So when they come back, you only have a minimum time, but it takes just a minimal amount of time to get back into the rhythm because you know each other, you know the system. It’s just more of a refresh,” Cone told former PBA commissioner Noli Eala on the latter’s Power & Play show on Saturday.
Indeed, this Gilas core has been together for two years and has shown chemistry and cohesion at times. But the team is also coming off a terrible showing in the FIBA Asia Cup and will be facing regional powerhouses in New Zealand (February 26) and Australia (March 1).
