Qatar side tourney did more harm than good for Gilas, says Cone

February 23, 2025 | 7:30pm

MANILA, Philippines -- The pocket tournament in Doha, Qatar  “probably hurt” Gilas Pilipinas more than it helped the squad, but head coach Tim Cone said that they tried to focus on the bigger picture ahead of the FIBA Asia Cup.

Cone and the Nationals finished the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers with back-to-back losses.

Gilas absorbed defeats to Chinese Taipei on Thursday evening and New Zealand Sunday morning (Manila time) to finish the qualifying round with a 4-2 win-loss record.

But before the final window, the Philippines joined the Doha Invitational Cup, where it won its opening game against Qatar and lost its final two games against Lebanon and Egypt.

After Sunday's loss to New Zealand, Cone stressed that the “windows are so short” and the team is “together so little.”

“We were able to do a Doha trip before we came here just to try to get more time together and play more games, and it probably hurt us more than it helped us in terms of being ready for Taiwan and New Zealand,” he said.

“But we were trying to look at a bigger picture in terms of the FIBA Asia coming up, because we know we're not going to have much time,” he added.

The regional tourney will be held in August in Saudi Arabia.

“We may be eight, 10 days at most to come together and prepare for that tournament.”

Against the Tall Blacks, the Nationals fell behind by double digits in the first quarter and by 28 points in the third frame, before trying to storm back in the final period.

But New Zealand hit timely shots and secured the 87-70 win to solidify the top seed of Group B.

The veteran coach also underscored that what the team is facing is resulting in “cumulative experiences.”

“We're trying to take each window as an experience and move it on to the next one and on to the next one and hopefully grow it and improve,” he said.

The team is also trying to navigate the absence of big man Kai Sotto, who injured his ACL, and is expected to miss a year from action.

“So we're still trying to adjust how to play without him, and that's the things we're going to be talking about and thinking about as we go into the FIBA Asia Cup,” he said.

“This one was important for seating, so we really wanted to get that seating, but that's now going to go to New Zealand. We're going to have a tougher road through that Cup, and that's something that's uppermost in our minds as well.”