Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone during a Fiba OQT Riga game against world number 6 Latvia. –FIBA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Whether Gilas Pilipinas performs in the upcoming 2025 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers, coach Tim Cone made sure of one thing.
This year 2024 was and is the team’s “trial year”.
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Having overhauled the program just a year ago following the 2023 Fiba World Cup, Cone said his second year – officially his first – as Gilas head coach is still part of a trial-and-error phase.
“This is a trial year for us. “The entire program we did this year was a test to find out what works and what doesn’t,” the Ginebra coach said just days before the Asian Cup qualifying tournament in Manila.
SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup Qualifiers
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“We’re still tweaking things, looking at things, and at the end of December, Al (Panlilio) and Erika (Dy) will reassess everything that’s happened and work from there.”
Since Cone was officially named Gilas head coach in 2024, the 12-man core has remained intact, with changes only made due to injuries.
When big men AJ Edu and June Mar Fajardo were unable to play for the first Asian Cup qualifying window in February, Cone brought in Japeth Aguilar and Mason Amos as replacements with the core intact.
Here’s how to watch Gilas Pilipinas in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers
When Scottie Thompson was unable to qualify for the Olympic qualifying tournament in July, Cone handed the difficult task over to Chris Newsome, leaving the core even more unchanged.
Instead of being completely frustrated by the occasional changes during a probation year, Cone said he welcomes the challenges as a chance for him to “figure things out” as they go.
“We’re still trying to figure out what the roster size should be, who should be in it and if this coaching staff is the right group to do this and move forward. This is a testing year for us and we are still trying to refine everything that happens,” Cone said.
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“There’s a reason the pool is small and hasn’t been expanded and that’s because we don’t have more time to teach all the time. The days of four to six weeks of preparation for the tournament are over.”