Close Won’t Cut It
Gilas Pilipinas’ schedule the past week has been nothing short of frantic, traveling across the Middle East, Europe, and then deep into the Baltics—taking narrow tuneup losses flush on the chin in between.
And yet, the Nationals went straight to practice right after they arrived in Latvia on Sunday (early Monday morning in Manila), putting aside exhaustion and a 10-hour road trip as it continued to prime and plot for the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Riga.
“This is not supposed to be a fun trip. It’s supposed to be the hardest thing that we will ever do in our basketball lives,” national coach Tim Cone told the Inquirer. “It’s been hectic for us.”
“Hopefully, now that we’re here in Riga, things will normalize for us in the next couple of days and we can catch our breath and focus on the tournament,” he added.
The Filipinos will have at least about three full days to acclimatize in the Latvian capital. By then, the 11-man crew led by Justin Brownlee, June Mar Fajardo and Dwight Ramos will be going through the proverbial eye of the needle once more on July 4.
Gilas Pilipinas will battle host and World No. 6 Latvia and, after just 20 hours, will return to action against No. 23-ranked Georgia in the group phase of one of the four OQTs that will complete the field in the Summer Olympic Games in Paris set later this month.
Punishing schedule
The schedule may seem punishing on paper, but Cone and his charges can draw much from their last seven grueling days, where they traveled to Turkiye and Poland for its test games.
Using that experience, Gilas can also manufacture optimism for the tall tasks against the Latvians and Georgians who will be fielding NBA players in the short meet.
The Philippines, despite having only 11 players, went 1-2 in their test games, winning against club team Taiwan Mustangs (74-64) at home, and then fading late against World No. 24 Turkiye in Istanbul (84-73) and No. 15 Poland in Sosnowiec (82-80).
“I’ve been pleased with our progress in the games. We’re proving to ourselves that we can play with these guys,” Cone said of the Europeans.
“But we can’t be satisfied with ‘getting close,’” he added. “We need to get over the hump and that means more attention to detail.”
Long a student of the game, Cone knows that Gilas can still unlock another dimension of its game just before the OQT tips off.
“The guys are pushing and I love it. But we still need more.”
