Sticking together as one.
That’s the mentality Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone is embracing despite bowing out of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 following an 84-60 quarterfinal defeat to two-time defending champion Australia, Wednesday evening at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Since taking the helm of the Philippines, the winningest head coach in PBA history has consistently emphasized the importance of continuity, growth, and stability within his select pool of players from the PBA and Asian leagues such as the B.League and the Korean Basketball League.
And even if Gilas failed to break a 40-year Asia Cup title drought or reach the semifinals of the continental tilt for the first time since 2013, Cone remains committed to those principles — aiming to keep pace with the Boomers ahead of their rematch in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers on March 1 on home soil.
The pool currently includes Justin Brownlee, Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, AJ Edu, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, Scottie Thompson, June Mar Fajardo, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez, and Jamie Malonzo. They will all continue to anchor the Philippines’ campaign as the team seeks a return to the Worlds after the nation’s historic hosting in 2023.
“We put this team together for the long term in trying to get them to grow together and get better,” Cone shared.
“If we are just going to change personnel, then we all go back to zero again. We are going to use this and try to make some adjustments.”
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In the qualifiers, the group went 4-2 — dropping their last two games to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand.
The only additions during that stretch were Japeth Aguilar, Mason Amos, Troy Rosario, and RJ Abarrientos.
In the Asia Cup, Gilas opened with losses to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand before pulling out a 66-57 win over Iraq to advance to the qualification round for the quarterfinals. They then outlasted host Saudi Arabia, 95-88, to set up the Australia clash.
“I really like our team, I like the way we play. They are good guys and are easy to coach, but I didn’t like our performance tonight. I don’t think we stepped up the way we wanted to,” Cone admitted.
“In the big scheme of things, we are not pleased with what happened but, like I said, this is a great team to be around and I’m proud and honored to be with these guys — but tonight was not a good performance for us.”
Cone knows that to even have a chance at upsetting the Boomers, Gilas must play near-perfect basketball.
Since joining the FIBA Asia circuit in 2017, Australia has only suffered three World Cup Qualifiers losses — two in 2019 and a forfeit to Iran in 2023.
The Boomers’ Asia Cup record is even more imposing: a perfect 18-0 slate as of press time, including an undefeated run so far in the 2025 edition with an average winning margin of 25.25 points per game.
To keep pace, Cone stressed the need to improve perimeter defense after allowing Australia to shoot 32-of-75 from the field.
He also pointed to the need for younger players like Edu, Quiambao, and Tamayo to emerge against a youthful, fast-paced Boomers squad with an average age of just 24.
“I just don’t think we played all that well tonight, and we have to give them credit because they imposed their will on us. We have to figure out a way to overcome that at this point,” the 67-year-old tactician said.
“We tried to keep the game at a certain type of tempo, we tried to get it into an execution type of game rather than an up-and-down. They just overwhelmed that idea. We couldn’t do it. So at some point, we tried to match them pace for pace and they just overwhelmed us.”
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A key factor in Gilas’ struggles against the Boomers — and throughout the Asia Cup — was the absence of 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto, a player who could have been matched against Australia’s bigs.
Gilas still seeks to finally break a decades-long drought against Australia, with their last win coming in a 101-100 thriller on July 9, 1974. Next time, Cone hopes Sotto will be fully recovered from his ACL injury to lead the frontline.
“The big missing piece is Kai Sotto.
“Hopefully, we get Kai and that makes us more competitive. At this point, it’s still too early to look and see what we need. We have to digest this, look at video, and see what is going on to go forward,” Cone concluded.
