Cone sticking with Gilas program

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February 28, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Call him “hard headed” but Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is sticking to his guns.

Amid passionate fans’ online rumblings for additions and/or changes to his small pool after the frustrating February window, Cone said he isn’t inclined to tinker with what he’s been implementing since Day One.

“At this point, no, we’re not going to add to the pool. We’re not going to subtract from the pool, unless there are guys out there that don’t want to join us anymore,” said the Gilas mentor of his 12 regulars and three alternates who would embark on the bid to qualify for the 2027 Olympics.

“But as long as these guys want to continue to play and represent, we’re going to let them represent. People are going to get angry about it. They’re going to get angry at me about it. That’s the bottom line. But we came in with a program. We came with an idea and we’re not going to change it at that first point. We’ll see what happens.”

Cone explained the many intricacies of redoing things as far as the system, team chemistry and the like if new faces keep on coming in.

“It’s not that easy to pull somebody out or add to the pool or get a bigger pool. There are finances involved. There’s budget. There’s extra travel time, more practice time. It’s not as simple as just saying, okay, now we’re going to go to 15 or 18 or 20 people,” he said.