Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone enjoyed the luxury of a high attendance rate in the Nationals’ practice for the 30th Southeast Asian Games, Thursday at the Meralco Gym in Pasig.
All players except the injured Marcio Lassiter were present in the session, said the veteran mentor.
“All showed. The only guy who’s out is Lassiter, but we expect him to maybe join on Monday,” said Cone.
“Participation is crucial, ’cause that’s where we’ll be able to teach and learn.”
The practice was set from 6-8 p.m., but Cone said that it only took them an hour and 30 minutes to finish. For the Ginebra strategist, they did not push the players since they do not want to tax them.
“We had a fast practice. We finished in about an hour and thirty — that’s our target,” said the two-time Grand Slam winner. “We’re trying to be smart with our practices.
“We don’t wanna spend the whole two hours… You do a two-hour practice, you’re gonna need a lot of conditioning. We’re not gonna do conditioning here. It’s really about cerebral stuff.”
And Cone is glad that the players have quickly picked up the scheme of things they are trying to teach.
“It’s amazing. Guys pick up things so quickly… It’s an honor to be around these guys and how good they are.”
Thursday marked Gilas’ second practice; they will then resume next Monday. Asked if there will be tuneup games as part of its buildup, Cone said they’re trying to arrange one with Alab Pilipinas.
“We’re still planning, maybe in two weeks, to have a pick-up game against one of the ABL teams. Probably Alab, Jimmy’s (Jimmy Alapag) team. We’ll see if that can work out.”
