At A Glance
- Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone raved at the quick development of young forward Kevin Quiambao, who is now emerging as one of the team's reliable players in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone raved at the quick development of young forward Kevin Quiambao, who is now emerging as one of the team’s reliable players in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Quiambao, who has been playing superb for Gilas through the last two windows, stepped up big in the Nationals’ much-needed 82-81 win over Jordan at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday, Aug. 28.
The 6-foot-6 forward nailed a booming triple with 11.7 seconds left to break a 79-all deadlock and put Gilas ahead for good.
He finished with 14 points and five rebounds after getting extended minutes on the floor due to the absence of Justin Brownlee and later on the injury to Carl Tamayo.
“He came in as the young guys of the team when we put this together two and a half years ago. We said at that point that at some point, he's going to be the guy that takes over the program. Him and Carl,” said Cone.
The veteran coach, however, admitted that he did not expect Quiambao to take such a big role at this point of his career but he nonetheless welcomes the fast growth of his prized forward.
“They were the two young guns that were gonna come up and be our main guys at some point. I was expecting that to happen when they're 26, 27, 28 but it’s happening now when they are 23, 24 years old,” he added.
Quiambao had a breakout performance in the July window when he fired 23 points in the tough 106-102 double-overtime defeat at the hands of New Zealand. His performance took off from there.
“They got a tremendous future in front of them. I really enjoy coaching KQ. He's such a good kid too. Carl also. It’s really fun to coach those guys,” said Cone.