Scouting report..what happened?..

GILAS Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone might have missed out one vital factor that should have been on top of his list of plans and tactics, that is….scouting report.

Through the years, the sport of basketball has evolved tremendously from a traditional or stereo-type of run-gun-shoot, pass and shoot as part of team’s plans and tactics to win a game.

And it is not enough likewise you have a long and rigid preparation as part of team build-up before tackling an equally well-trained opponent in a major intentional competition like the recent FIBA Asia Cup being held over in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as of this writing.

Early exit of GIlas-Pilipinas in the said tournament after bowing to defending champion Australia, 60-84, in the quarterfinals not to mention a pair of defeats during the Group D stages to Chinese-Taipei, 95-87, and New Zealand, 94-86. Though got a pair of victories over Iraq, 66-57, and host Saudi Arabia, 95-88.

Overall, fans, fanatics, experts and so-called guru, of this basketball crazy country, witnessed the nationals struggled and how to stop the oppositions’ impeccable three-point shooting. As if they didn’t see it coming…What the f@&£k?…

Like school children came to class unprepared and didn’t do their homework. And the result?.. failed, as critics and basketball aficionados took their frustration swarming to the social media and started criticising Cone’s “triangle offense”

Actually, there’s nothing wrong with Cone’s system and style of play, its just a matter of execution that is why it needs long preparation and holding a group to study and train hard to completely familiarize with the system and with each other to produce a clock precision play.

Aside from familiarising to the system and with teams a certain of playing together. But there’s something lacking in the system, scouting report., yes, that’s right. Its a system that profiles and pinpoints a team’s strong and weak points.

Its a system developed and introduced by another American mentor Coach Ron Jacob, during mid 80s’as appointed by then basketball project director and business tycoon the late Danding Cojuangco.

Ever since the Gilas program in 2013, as initiated by Telecommunications tycoon Manny Pangilinan. I haven’t heard from the past coaches, a scouting report of the opposition and even in Cone’s system, wasn’t heard or included.

Maybe one the many reasons why scouting report wasn’t part of the system probably the lack in logistic support.

Well, it may sounds like it, because to be able scout the opposition you have to acquire video copy of their won matches or sending a team of two arm with video recorder, while jutting down notes analysing their play-pattern.

Scouting and studying the opponent’s vulnerability, you’ll have a complete picture on how to defeat the enemy and come up with the W's. I hope Cone would think hard, and I mean really hard to consider scouting report into their system, if they really boost Gilas’ of making it back to the Olympics.