Cone upbeat on Gilas

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone will continue working as an assistant with Gilas looking forward to the FIBA World Cup next year and is convinced the national team doesn’t need a “big” naturalized import because he expects June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar and Kai Sotto on the roster.

Cone joined the Gilas coaching staff for the fourth FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying window against Lebanon in Beirut recently. “I was impressed with Dwight Ramos on and off the court,” he said. Cone also cited UP standout Carl Tamayo, calling him a stud and Sotto. “We won’t be with Kai and Jordan (Clarkson) for the coming FIBA window,” he added. “We’ll try to get the other pool players training on Mondays, keeping the chemistry and learning going.”

Cone said he hopes Ginebra import Justin Brownlee is naturalized in time for the November games as Clarkson won’t be available. Gilas plays on the road against Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the next FIBA window. “In the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, we’re fine with Justin because we’ve got Japeth and Christian (Standhardinger),” he said, noting Brownlee’s height of 6-4 5/8 relative to the import limit of under 6-10. “Same thing with Gilas. Jordan is a top 25 to 30 NBA player. He’s 6-4 and on a whole different level. Jordan has committed six weeks to us for the World Cup. But it would be really nice to have a backup like Justin.”

Cone said Gilas displayed toughness against Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in the fourth window. “People don’t realize Lebanon was 22-2 in the last 24 international games,” he said. “They’ve been playing at a really high level and their last loss was to Australia by two. We went to Lebanon and played Lebanon and it was a crazy gym. They were loud. I’ve never seen that before except for Ginebra fans. We lost but showed how good of a team we were by playing tough on their homecourt. Saudi didn’t do badly against Lebanon, didn’t play badly against Jordan. But Gilas made them look bad. People were saying that Saudi was weak and that’s why we beat them but they weren’t a bad team at all. They were a lot better than people give them credit for and that just showed our level and how good we were out there.”