Attendance uncertainties seen to mark first Gilas practice

MANILA, Philippines — With about a month before the start of the FIBA Asia Cup, Gilas Pilipinas will start its training Monday. 

But for now, Gilas head coach Tim Cone said the team is still “grasping at straws” with the PBA Philippine Cup still ongoing and other players still outside the country. 

Cone, following Ginebra’s 88-87 win over the San Miguel Beermen on Sunday, said that he is still unsure who will come in practice. 

“It’s not going to be a heavy long practice, obviously. I’m not even sure if everybody’s going to show up. First, we’ve got guys in the playoffs, and we have Game 7 on Wednesday,” Cone said. 

“We’ll have to see… like I said I don't even know who's showing up at this point, we're grasping at straws just like we did tonight in terms of trying to figure out how to get practices in. But if we can get a core of six or seven eight guys that would be good enough for now,” he added. 

Among those in the Gilas pool are PBA stars June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario, Jamie Malonzo, Calvin Oftana and Chris Newsome. Of the eight, only Newsome is currently not playing in the PBA playoffs.

Import Justin Brownlee is still overseas, as well as AJ Edu and Kevin Quiambao. Carl Tamayo, Mason Amos and Dwight Ramos complete the pool.

“I'm not a big fan of Monday practices due to these… these kinds of practice you never really get to get good ones but chances to get together and do something, we'll see,” he said.

“I understand most of the most if not all the guys from Japan are here,” he added.

The FIBA Asia Cup is set to start August 5 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Gilas will start its journey against Chinese Taipei on August 6. Aside from Chinese Taipei, the Philippines is part of Group D with Iraq and New Zealand.