By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone bared that the team is mulling the possibility of spending some time for a training camp in Doha, Qatar as part of its preparations not only for the February window but also for the rest of the tournaments in 2025 calendar.
Although nothing’s cast in stone yet, Cone shared that the Nationals are looking at the first week of February as possible dates for the training camp and play some friendly games before the pair of road games against Chinese Taipei on Feb. 20 and then New Zealand on Feb.23.
“There’s a chance to go to Doha before the window for some friendlies. That is, if the schedule works out. It’s not 100 percent yet,” said Cone on Sunday, Jan. 5 after Barangay Ginebra’s 93-81 victory over San Miguel.
That will be part of our preparation. But that’s going to happen February 10th or 11th, we might go there and do our preparation there and then come back,” he added.
Cone and the Gilas will have nearly two weeks of preparation time as initially agreed with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and its stakeholders when the program was first formed last year.
The PBA, for its part, is taking a break in the middle of the Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup playoffs to give way for the preparations.
Such an opportunity to train together, according to Cone, is big for the program especially how he had repeatedly emphasized what he termed ‘cumulative preparations’ as its pillar.
“The whole idea is to continue to get to know each other. We have such small windows to be together that each window is absolutely crucial to our chemistry and our ability to compete at a high level together,” Cone said.
Gilas is coming into the last and final window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers already assured of a spot in the main tournament in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in August.
The Nationals remained undefeated with a 4-0 record but Cone had stressed the importance of going away victorious to get the much needed momentum.
“We want to be able to get there and compete. There’s going to be a lot of really great teams there – Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle Eastern teams. I’m missing somebody out there but I know there’s going to be a lot of good teams that we are going to compete against,” said Cone.
“The idea is we are going to use this window, hopefully, to prepare and get better for the FIBA Asia.”
