ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Cone excited to see taller Gilas go up against New Zealand

Cone excited to see taller Gilas go up against New Zealand

Published Jul 18, 2024 07:29 am

At A Glance

  • "They are the top ranked team in the world. They beat (Croatia) but New Zealand is gonna be a tough team for us in the FIBA Asia and we are looking forward to measuring up with them," said Cone in a post-OQT presser.

The second window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers is still three and half months away but Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone is already excited to see how his wards would fare against New Zealand in their two-game home stand in November.

image - 2024-07-18T151817.755.jpg
Kevin Quiambao and Carl Tamayo are the only remnants of the Gilas team that faced New Zealand in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup (FIBA Photo/File)


Like Gilas, the Tall Blacks made a good account of themselves in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, pulling off a surprising 90-86 victory over Croatia that was bannered by NBA players Dario Saric and Ivica Zubac.

Croatia was even fresh off a morale-boosting victory over Luka Doncic and Slovenia when it lost to the Tall Blacks.

“They are the top ranked team in the world. They beat (Croatia) but New Zealand is gonna be a tough team for us in the FIBA Asia and we are looking forward to measuring up with them,” said Cone in a post-OQT presser.

Unlike Gilas which advanced to the semifinals, however, New Zealand fell short of reaching the next round in OQT. But that doesn’t mean that the Nationals are entirely better than the world No. 21 Tall Blacks especially with how they manhandled the Filipinos during their past meetings. 

New Zealand has come out victorious over Gilas through the four meetings they had in the past – in all of those the Tall Blacks won in a dominant fashion.

“They have handled us easily in the last few years playing against us so we are really looking forward to locking horns with them on the Asian level and that should really be a good fight when they come in,” said Cone.

The veteran mentor, however, feels like the Nationals have better personnel to match up against New Zealand this time especially with towering Kai Sotto and June Mar Fajardo manning the paint, and Justin Brownlee playing at the wings.

“They are not a huge team in terms  of a lot of seven footers but they are tall across the board they are  all 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9 all the forwards with that height the guards are 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6 so they are really even across the line,” Cone commented on New Zealand’s size. “Historically, they are really a tough team for us to match up to but we haven't really come in and played them with a Kai and a June Mar playing together (and) having a naturalized player like Justine,” shared the veteran mentor.

“I think we can match up a whole lot better this time around,” he added.

ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.