By MARK REY MONTEJO

Gilas Pilipinas guard Chris Newsome said interim head coach Tim Cone has always given importance to fundamentals and defense as they prepare for the Asian Games set later this month.

Newsome witnessed how the legendary PBA coach put emphasis on the technical portion of the game that might be used against their Asian rivals.

“He’s very solid with fundamentals, and how he teaches the game, I respect that and I appreciate that very much because that’s something that’s really what we have to focus on every level, it’s the fundamentals,” Newsome said.

“I think he’s preaching the right thing and it’s important to go back with fundamentals for us, especially when we wanna compete internationally, we really have to make sure our fundamentals are solid, because we  don't really have the blessing [of] height and size, so we really have to rely to the fundamentals of the game,” ” he added.

That defensive feature is what Cone wanted for the Meralco guard to utilize in his international stint.

“He’s defensive minded, we’re very much the same, we have our talks during our World Cup preparations about defense and he said my best value for team, international-wise is to be able to lock-in on other teams primary guard and to be able to stop them and make their job tough, it’s not necessary means scoring the basketball,” said Newsome.

Newsome mentioned he’s excited to play under coach Cone, looking forward to learning from him.