Gilas Pilipinas against Australia in the quarter -finals of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025. —Fiba photo
The quarterfinals of Gilas Pilipinas de la Fiba Asia Cup in the hands of Australia has aroused questions about what must be done in order to improve the team, in particular with the qualifications of the World Cup later this year.
Coach Tim Cree is not in a hurry to answer these questions and will adopt a more deliberate approach to understand why his services collapsed early on a tournament that saw Gilas endure challenges that will require the attention of coaches personnel before the first qualification window.
“It is too early to watch and say:” We are going, that’s what we need at this “stadium”, said CONE after Gilas showed the Australian door, 84-60 on Wednesday at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We really have to digest this. We were able to watch the video. We could see what is going on and move forward,” added CONE.
The Philippines came out on a difficult spot in Jeddah, losing against Chinese-Taipei and New Zealand before obtaining victories for creating characters on Iraq at the end of the group game and host of Saudi Arabia in an exciting quarter-final qualification game.
In the first three games, Gilas fought slow and played a catch -up while having trouble defending the three -point shot. The men of Cone jumped on Saudi Arabia from the start, but had to resist the formidable shots of the hosts at the end of the fourth to sneak a victory in overtime.
But the quality of Australia was released in the quarterfinals, including the start of 13-4, taking an advance of 24-8 and finishing the first quarter, 29-12-a product of a formidable offensive execution coupled with the bad shooting of Gilas. From there, the Philippines could not recover.
“I didn’t think we had intensified as much as we wanted,” said Cone. “No doubt that Australian athletics and length (have been a factor). Even if you see it on video, when you climb up up there and start playing against them, you realize that they are much higher.
“So we had trouble staying in front of them, we had trouble challenging their three, they moved the ball very well and they had quick blows. We tried to keep it at a slower pace, but we did not have enough discipline to do it throughout the game. And the Australians did a good job by defending Justin (Brownlee), the limiting.
With the finished tournament, there are many sockets around social media, in particular the composition of the CONE swimming pool which was very thin and practically since it took over as a permanent guy to manage the national team.
That CONE can entertain the prospect of expansion, it remains to be seen, but the coach of Gilas insists that there is no way that the program returns from zero.
“We have assembled this long -term team, trying to make them grow and improve. And if we are just going to move forward and change staff, then we are all back to zero,” said Cone. “So we will use this (Asian Cup campaign) and try to get adjustments.”
Gilas will again face Australia and New Zealand in the group A World Cup qualifications as well as Guam, led by Jericho Cruz of San Miguel Beer. The November window will temporarily put nationals in a home series with Guam before facing the two powers of Oceania in February and July.
Cone Bance on the return of Kai Sotto as soon as the qualification was opened, which would be a huge elevator for Gilas.
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“I hope we get Kai and it makes us a little more competitive,” said CONE.
