Gilas Pilipinas Men head coach Tim Cone isn’t expecting much from the national team’s first practice on Monday ahead of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025.
The session comes exactly one month before Gilas opens its continental campaign against Chinese Taipei. But with the majority of the player pool still either competing in the ongoing 2025 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals or overseas, Cone knows it won’t be a full turnout.
“It’s not going to be a heavy, long practice, obviously. I’m not even sure if everybody is going to show up — especially the guys in the playoffs,” Cone admitted.
“We’ve got a Game 7 on Wednesday, so asking our guys to come to practice is kind of hard. I’m going to tell the San Miguel guys to practice, and I’ll give our guys a break,” he quipped, speaking after Ginebra’s 88-87 win over San Miguel that forced a deciding Game 7 on Sunday.
“Like I said, I don’t even know who’s showing up at this point. We’re grasping at straws — just like we did tonight — in terms of trying to figure out how to get practices in. But if we can get a core of six, seven, maybe eight guys, that would be good enough for now.”
(C) PBA Images
Several Gilas pool members remain active in the PBA semis: Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, Troy Rosario, and Japeth Aguilar are with Ginebra; June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez are playing for San Miguel; while Calvin Oftana suits up for TNT.
Meanwhile, Carl Tamayo is finishing his training camp with the LG Sakers in Changwon. Kevin Quiambao remains in the United States as he continues his bid for an NBA Summer League spot.
Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee and Gunma’s newest recruit AJ Edu are set to arrive from the US on Tuesday.
As of now, only Dwight Ramos of Hokkaido and Chris Newsome of Meralco are fully available.
Still, Cone hopes to make the most out of whatever numbers they can pull together.
“I’m not a big fan of Monday or Tuesday practices. You never really get quality ones on those days. But if there’s a chance to get together and do something, we’ll see,” he said.
