Cone expects tough test for Gilas in Europe 'friendlies'
Tim Cone FILE PHOTO
Tim Cone expects Gilas Pilipinas to get seriously tested in its two friendly games in Europe as the national squad spends the final week of its preparation for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).
The 37th ranked Philippines will play Turkey, 24th in the world, at around 1 a.m. on Friday (Manila time) while Poland, 15th in the world, will be the national team's final tuneup game assignment this weekend.
"Poland is No. 15 in the world so they'll give us a real good feel and Turkey is No. 24 but they are much better with their NBA guys. I don't know if their NBA guys are going to show up because they are not preparing for the OQT," said Cone, whose team beat the Taiwan Mustangs, 74-64, Monday night in its friendly match before leaving for Europe the following day.
The American mentor said the game against the Mustangs gave his frontcourt players June Mar Fajardo and Kai Sotto a big test after engaging in physical play against 7-foot-6 reinforcement Samuel Deguara.
"We need it to be hard. We didn't want it to be easy. If it's easy, it's not gonna help us. This was hard and we were really happy it was hard," said the 66-year-old Cone.
The PBA's all-time winningest coach stressed that the result of the friendly game is immaterial for him.
"We were not concerned about winning or losing the basketball game. We want to play a certain style and they (Mustangs) did a really good job of throwing a lot of jump defenses at us – zones and box-and-ones – things we really haven't been prepared for because we've only been practicing for three days," he said.
Defensively, Cone said Deguara's size and strength allowed the Filipinos to work doubly hard, something the players need to learn to deal with as they prepare for Latvia and Georgia in the OQT next week.
"But we've worked hard on the defensive side. Deguara, their big guy, he is a load for everybody. He took a lot of space offensively. He took a lot of space defensively and really caused us some problems. But this is exactly what we need," said Cone.
The Gilas mentor has high hopes the last two friendly games will serve the players in good stead, before they fly to Riga, Latvia for the Olympic qualifier.
"We still have a lot of work but we got tough. That's the whole idea why we are playing now. It's because we have a lot of work to do ahead of us. That's why we are playing friendlies in Turkey and friendlies in Poland. Hopefully, we can just continue to get better and better as we move forward," he added.
Undoubtedly, Gilas will be the underdogs against its two foreign group mates in Group A.
Group B features Cameroon, Brazil, and Montenegro.
The two top squads from each group will advance to the crossover semis, while the two surviving teams play in a winner-take-all match to contest a spot in the Paris Olympics.
Latvia, even without Boston Celtics sweet-shooting big man Kristaps Porzingis, placed fifth during its maiden FIBA World Cup appearance in Manila last year.
Forward Anrdrejs Grazulis and playmaker Arturs Zagars led Latvia to that impressive finish in the tournament known before as the world championships.