By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Gilas Pilipinas training for the first window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers is set to intensity as they open camp at the Inspire Sports Academy, Friday, Nov. 21.
Spending the first three days of training mainly to give his wards some refreshers to the team’s triangle system, Gilas head coach Tim Cone aims to go deeper in their preparations, this time, focusing on their opponent, Guam and then, developing the team chemistry as they train behind closed doors in the Calamba, Laguna facility.
“We need to get into Inspire. We need to get some more continuity. And we need to look at, you know, have time to look at video, be together more,” said Cone as the team concluded their training at the Upper Deck Gym on Thursday, Nov. 20.
Cone said their training camp at Inspire will be the most crucial part of their preparations as not only that the team can train twice a day but the players can bond together especially with new additions Juan Gomes de Liano and Quentin Millora-Brown.
“The thing about Inspire is that we can, we’re together for not just the two hours in practice in one. We got another one, so it’s like we’re together for five hours, and we’re together for breakfast, we’re together for lunch, we’re together for dinner,” the veteran mentor explained.
“We’re together when we do weights, we’re together when we’re doing a post-dinner video. So literally, I mean, we’re like 12 hours, you hanging out with each other throughout the whole course of the day,” he added.
“It really gives us a lot more continuity and a lot more follow-up, immediate follow-up. We can look at what we did, and so it’s just much, much more efficient. Efficient use of our time,” he added.
It is also at Inspire where young guns Kevin Quiambao and Carl Tamayo will be joining the team. Cone said the two are arriving on Thursday night but they committed to be at Inspire the next day.
Aside from the two, injured Calvin Oftana and AJ Edu, who won’t be joining the team until it flies to Guam, all hands have been on deck for Gilas with even injured star Kai Sotto also attending the practice.
Joining Sotto, Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liano are Chris Newsome, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, RJ Abarrientos and Troy Rosario, Jamie Malonzo and Dwight Ramos.
