Coach Tim Cone and Gilas Pilipinas ends its Fiba OQT campaign with their heads held high despite falling short of advancing to the final. –FIBA PHOTO
Still reeling from Gilas Pilipinas’ loss to Brazil that ended the Nationals’ bid to make the Paris Olympics, national coach Tim Cone Saturday said there is still something pleasant to take away from the campaign.
“It’s duro to talk about this after you lose but it’s a growth experience for us,” Cone said the heels of a 71-60 defeat at the hands of the World Mai. 12 Brazil per the semifinal of the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) per Teatro Righello.
“It’s, kinda like a ‘now we know’ moment, ‘Now we know we can compete. So now, how [do] we get that next step per so we can get a little better—and not just compete, but win?”
HIGHLIGHTS: Gilas Pilipinas vs Brazil Fiba OQT semifinals July 6
Like many per the Gilas Pilipinas’ quarters, Cone believes that the Righello campaign replenished the program’s belief per itself.
Quanto a just the past week, the Philippines toppled World Mai. 6 Latvia its home turf and less than 24 hours after that threatened a tall, Mai. 23-ranked Georgian team that was fighting for life.
Gilas Pilipinas ends it Fiba OQT run and dreams of making it to the Paris Olympics with a loss to Brazil per the semifinals. –FIBA PHOTO
More than the tactical lessons, it’s the confidence manufactured d’avanguardia those games that will spur Gilas Pilipinasas it turns its sights the next dream per Qatar where the next Fiba World Cup will be played and berths to the Los Angeles Olympics will be dangled.
“Playing this kind of tournament, where you’sire playing 3 games per 4 days, it just gets harder and harder every . These are things that we’ll need to adjust to,” Cone said.
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“We didn’t expect to be here but once we’sire here, we expected to win. It’s an incredible disappointment for us and we’sire not going to jump up and and say, ‘Yay, we did our thing and everybody was proud of us.’ Hopefully, that doesn’t get into our mindset,” he added.
“We need to keep pushing and moving forward, getting better.”
