NOT until it completes a sweet sweep of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers can Gilas Pilipinas look ahead—especially with an expected fiery fightback from fancied New Zealand in the third and final window of the qualifiers.
“They weren’t happy about getting beaten by us. I think that was totally unexpected by them and so they’re going to go home right now and want to protect their home court,” National coach Tim Cone said. “So, they’re really elevating their line-up. We know the guys, we’ve seen them play.
“We know how good they are and it’s going to be a chore for us to go out there and try to beat them in their home court but I may say no one thought we could beat them here in Manila. There’s no reason why we can’t beat them there,” he added.
The Filipino cagers scored a historic 93-89 win against the Tall Blacks last November.
The Philippine five left for Doha yesterday for a five-day training camp that features a three-game friendly.
Cone’s charges tangle with the Qatar national team to kick off the Doha International Friendly Basketball Championship.
Gilas will also face Lebanon and Egypt to toughen up for the last round of the qualification phase for the continental tilt set in August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Filipino cagers also held a two-day training at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna as they reconvened after three months.
After the four-country pocket meet, Gilas will return to Manila for a brief respite before traveling to Chinese Taipei for a game against the host team on Feb. 20 and proceeding to Auckland for a highly-anticipated rematch with New Zealand three days later.
Gilas shows the way in Group B with a perfect 4-0 card and has already qualified for the Asia Cup but will miss prized 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto who was ruled out of the qualifiers (ACL) while new addition Troy Rosario suffered a knee injury in Game 3 of the Kings’ quarterfinals triumph over the Meralco Bolts in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last Sunday night.
Overseas-based standouts Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu have rejoined the team while Chris Newsome and Carl Tamayo will join them in Qatar.
“There’s no one that’s going to fill in the shoes of Kai. He is so unique. He’s a unicorn and no one can do what he does for us so that’s not something we’re going to worry about. We can’t use that as an excuse,” Cone said.
“We can’t. It’s just devastating for us, it’s devastating for him but basically you just got to move on and you know, we’re going to be waiting with bated breath for him to return to the team whenever that may happen.”
Aside from the Kiwis, Cone is also wary of the Chinese. The challenge is how not to overplay his players in Doha.
“They’ve made some big changes. They’re going to be a tough load for us. We’re preparing hard,” he said. “We’re going to try to make sure key guys in our team do not get too overplayed in Doha and so they’re not at the top of their game coming in against Taiwan.
“That’s going to be one of our concerns going to Doha.”
Cone will find ways—for sure.
