THE entire Gilas Pilipinas coaching staff had a meeting of minds for the first time over the weekend and came out with a positive outlook notwithstanding the series of bad luck that hounded the men's national team the past months.
Head mentor Chot Reyes said a lot were discussed during the sit down meeting attended by coaches Tim Cone, Jong Uichico, Goldwin Monteverde, and Nenad Vucinic.
"It was a long meeting," said Reyes. "A lot of options, a lot of possibilities, and a lot of plans discussed."
Part of the talk centered on the pool of players who will form the third window of the coming FIBA World Cup qualifiers scheduled later this month that will have Gilas playing Lebanon in Beirut on the 25th and then hosting Saudi Arabia here four days later.
Reyes knows all eyes are on the team especially after falling short of advancing to the quarterfinals of the recent FIBA Asia Cup held in Indonesia in the latest of several struggles Gilas had gone through starting this year.
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But while doing well and remaining competitive against the best teams in Asia remains the foremost goal, the Gilas coach also emphasized the biggest battle will have to be fought in the long term.
"Coach Tim repeated himself. We don't need to win the game against Lebanon. Sure it's going to be good for PR, going to be a good response to my haters. But for the team's objective? Not necessarily," said Reyes.
No timeline was mentioned on when the pool of players will be announced, but as per FIBA competitions, team rosters are usually made available two weeks before the tournament. (RG)
