Gilas Pilipinas Men head coach Tim Cone is not likely losing sleep over the limited preparation time the Philippines has for its coming home games against New Zealand and Australia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
What could be keeping him up some nights, though, is the uncertainty of Kai Sotto’s availability heading for those games.
Gilas takes on the NZ Tall Blacks on Feb. 26 and the Australia Boomers on March 1, both at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Australia, ranked 6th in the world, and No. 36 Philippines hold 2-0 win-loss records in the first round of Group A, while No. 25 New Zealand and No. 79 Guam are winless after two matches. The top three teams in the bracket will move on to the second round, with three teams from Group C joining them.
“Although the PBA has finished, we’re still waiting on our players from Japan and Korea to be released from their mother teams,” Cone said. “That won’t happen until the 16th when they begin to trickle in that week.”
Among those in the Gilas Men’s pool seeing action internationally are Sotto, Dwight Ramos, AJ Edu, Quentin Millora-Brown, Kevin Quiambao, and Carl Tamayo.
“That limits our prep time together,” Cone said. “But these guys have been together for multiple tournaments and windows for the past two years, so the familiarity is mostly already there.”
What the multi-titled mentor is looking forward to is the return of a healthy Sotto, who is coming back from surgery to repair a torn ACL suffered early last year.
“Hopefully, getting Kai back and reintegrating him back into the lineup will be our most pressing goal,” Cone said. “I think it’s important to remember that Kai has just recently returned from injury and to playing after a year.
“At this point, we will take what he can give us and play the long game with him. We don’t want to assume or preempt anything with him until we have had more conversations with him and his handlers.
“We want to make sure we get this right. Obviously, he is crucial to our success in the coming window, but his long-term health is also crucial to our overall program leading up to the World Cup and beyond.”
Initial workout for the Gilas Men will be at the Upper Deck Sports Center in Ortigas before they drive out to the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
“We will go into Inspire when the team is totally intact which is around the 20th, although we will begin practice earlier on the 16th with those already in Manila,” said Cone.
Naturalized player Justine Brownlee is expected to join the Gilas Men in training as soon as he wraps up his obligation with the Meralco Bolts in the East Asia Super League (EASL).
The Bolts face the Ryukyu Golden Kings on Feb. 11 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
