Cone: Job’s not done

MANILA, Philippines — As delightful as those epic twin victories over Jordan and Iran were, Gilas Pilipinas’ situation in FIBA World Cup Qualifiers remains the same.

Outside Group E’s cutline in the race for four tickets to next year’s global meet.

With 12 points on a 4-4 record, the Nationals sit at fifth place in the group behind unbeaten Australia (16 on 8-0), New Zealand (14 on 6-2), Iran (13 on 5-3) and Jordan (13 on 5-3) and ahead of Syria (10 on 2-6) going to the last two windows of Round 2.

And no matter how great it felt after stealing an 82-81 overtime win over the Falcons and 68-56 payback against old tormentor Team Melli in the fourth window at home with an all-Filipino crew, Gilas is aware of the strong chase it still has to mount in the November and February legs.

“We were saying in the locker room that this was really a special moment but this wasn’t our goal. Our goal is to make the World Cup and all it did was give us a big step forward,” said coach Tim Cone.

“So the job is not done. We still have work to do but this was a nice step forward. Hopefully we continue to take steps forward.”

Punching a ticket to basketball’s centerpiece competition is vital to what Cone and Co. ultimately set their sights on when they started the program two years ago – the LA Olympics in 2028.

“How special would it be for us to make the World Cup again and then have a chance, from there, to go to the Olympics and that’s really the ultimate goal,” said Cone.

The Nationals passed their big test against Jordan and Iran without Justin Brownlee, who’s out on health issues. Kai Sotto, AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos, CJ Perez, Kevin Quiambao, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Scottie Thompson, Carl Tamayo and June Mar Fajardo led the gutsy homestand, counting on collective effort to fill in Brownlee’s shoes and displaying the trademark Filipino fighting spirit.

“Just a great character performance by these guys in both games,” Cone said.

“After that overtime game (against Jordan), it’s easy to kind of let down coming into this one (against Iran). But they all knew the importance of it. They all knew the importance it was for them, and for the country.”

Cone marvels at the vast potential of Gilas, which has been posting memorable feats despite not being able to field a full-strength team in all its campaigns since January 2024 due to injuries and various reasons.

“When we have our best players, we can compete with anybody. We really feel we can, especially in Asia but we feel we can compete on a European level or Australian level. But we just haven’t been able to get all of our best players together,” said Cone.

“But once that happens, I think you’ll really see some special things, some special moments for the program.”