Gilas Pilipinas: Return to national team coaching brings back memories, says Tim Cone

 

New Gilas Pilipinas Men head coach Tim Cone has not been an active national team head coach in two decades, and being back to handle the Philippines’ senior squad full time brings back memories, according to the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel mentor.

Cone gathered Gilas Pilipinas’ pool members for the upcoming SEA Games 2019 cage wars for their 1st practice session last Monday, and the PBA all-time winningest head coach couldn’t help but look back at his prior experiences.

Per ABS-CBN News’ Camille Naredo:

“It just brings back so many memories of 1998 for me, walking into a room with those 15 great players, all superstars in their own right … I see them from a distance so much.”

Cone added that being able to coach players he has coached against numerous times is one of the unique feelings of being a national team head coach.

“We plan against them, we watch them on video … we know their weaknesses and strengths, but we don’t really get a chance to talk and really get to know them. And it’s a completely different light. And so, that to me was the biggest impact, just being in the room.”

Members of the national team pool include 6 members of Barangay Ginebra, 4 from San Miguel Beer, 3 from the TNT KaTropa, and one each from Alaska and Phoenix.

Cone furthered he wants practices to be “concise” knowing that time is not on Gilas’ side with the Governors’ Cup still on-going.

“We realize we have a short number of practice, so we wanna be very concise … every practice has to be concise and efficient.”

(Photo from PBA Images)