Gilas, too eager to start training

AS the PBA season-ending conference, Philippine Cup finals’ series is down to five games or probably less, Gilas-Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone and his bunch of generational players are more than eager to get together in preparation for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Only three players in Gilas’ roster are seeing action in the Philippine Cup series with their respective teams, C.J Perez and Junemar Fajardo, for San Miguel Beer and Meralco’s Chris Newsome. The Beermen and Volts are tied 1-1 in their best-of-seven championship playoff as of this writing.

And the rest of the team members are now available, include Japan B-Leaguers, led by Kai Sotto, awaiting Cone’s go-signal to head to Inspire Academy.

To be exact, Gilas-Pilipinas has 10-days to practice before the qualifying stage for the Paris Olympics set from July 26 to August 11. Four slots are left with 24 countries, which split into eight groups in four separate venues, are vying for the remaining seats.

Gilas is set to play host FIBA world's number six Latvia on July 2 and Georgia (23) the following day. The nationals need at least win either of the two to get into the semifinals, wherein they wil meet the other two qualifiers from a neighbouring group led by Brazil (12), Montenegro (17) and Cameroon (68).

Previously, Cone had expressed optimism about Gilas chances of at least pulling off a sort of miracle, in my opinion, considering how tough these European teams are, But for Cone, who said it before, “its’ going to be tough, but not impossible”.

Yes I would say, it’s mathematically possible via a long-shot, as the host Latvia is playing on home town crowd at Riga Arena. Not only that, the Latvians will be parading with Boston Celtics’ 7”3’ Kristaf Porzingis whose Celtics’ playing in the NBA finals versus Dallas Mavericks, led by Luka Doncic.

While Georgia, on the other hand, reportedly to be headed by Minnesota Timberwolves’ Goga Bitadze, whose known for his physical style of play and speed to shoot around the perimeter.

And as part of the mental and physical toughening grind Cone has lined up for Gilas to meet the European agility, physicality and fast ball movement have a tune-up games with Poland (15) on June 29 and with Turkey (24) two-days later.

TRIVIA: the last time a Philippine team first played Poland, was during the 1972 Munich Olympics. the Filipino led the Polish until halftime, 46-33, but failed to sustain the momentum in the second half before losing,75-90.