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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Gilas to begin buildup even as Asia Cup staging remains uncertain due to Middle East conflict

Gilas to begin buildup even as Asia Cup staging remains uncertain due to Middle East conflict

Published Jun 23, 2025 01:46 pm

At A Glance

  • Gilas Pilipinas is set to begin its preparations for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup ahead of schedule with the team looking at the possibility of conducting once a week practice for nearly a month before the initially planned 10-day build up for the continental tiff.
Gilas Pilipinas is set to begin its preparations for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup ahead of schedule with the team looking at the possibility of conducting once a week practice for nearly a month before the initially planned 10-day buildup for the continental tiff set in August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Head coach Tim Cone said the team is still sorting out its schedule with the players but revealed they already have a June 30 date as a tentative start for their Monday training schedule.
We are going to have a Zoom with all the players on Monday to go over the practice schedules. We are trying to get some Monday practices before we actually come together, said Cone during his guesting with Power and Play with Noli Eala over the weekend.
The Nationals are actually scheduled to begin their closed-door training shortly after the conclusion of the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup but Cone deemed the need for more practice time, hence the decision to begin with Monday practices.
The practices, however, will coincide with the ongoing PBA playoffs and some of the players – especially those who will play in the Finals are expected to miss the practices.
The Gilas players that are still in the running in the PBA playoffs are June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez of San Miguel, Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo and Japeth Aguilar for Ginebra and Calvin Oftana for TNT.
Even Cone himself could miss the Gilas practice should the Kings reach the Finals.
We will start sometime during the Finals. If I'm not in the finals, then I will obviously coach the practices. But if I'm in the Finals, then we will get Richard del Rosario and Sean Chambers to handle the practices while I'm still with Ginebra, Cone explained.
As for the overseas players, they are already in town as their respective leagues are also in the offseason while naturalized player Justin Brownlee is expected to be back in time for the once a week practices.
We are trying to get maybe about, if we can, 18 practices together including two-a-day practices. We plan to go to Clark Air Base this time and do a short camp or maybe a two-day camp before we leave, he added.
While Gilas is already mapping out its schedule, there’s still a cloud of uncertainty that surrounds the staging of the Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia largely due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.
The big question in our mind right now is do we continue to play in Jeddah, thinking of what's going on in the Middle East, or whether they change the venue, Cone said.
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