Justin Brownlee leads Gilas Pilipinas’ rout of host Latvia to open the Filipinos’ Fiba OQT campaign. –FIBA PHOTO
SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba OQT in Riga, Latvia
National coach Tim Cone has made one thing clear months before the tall order Gilas Pilipinas needs to hurdle in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Latvia.
“I’m a big believer that there are always really hard things to do. But nothing’s impossible,” he had told the Inquirer.
The architect behind last year’s golden romp in the Asian Games in China put that mantra to the test once again on Thursday morning in Manila, when the Philippines wakes up to the result of its National squad opening its OQT stint against Latvia and its home crowd at Arena Riga.
READ: Gilas Pilipinas stuns world No. 6 Latvia to open Fiba OQT bid
Against overwhelming odds, Cone had already asked his crew—led by the indefatigable Justin Brownlee, the World Cup-tested duo of June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar, and young cornerstones Kai Sotto and Dwight Ramos—to have the immediate goal of making the knockout crossover, where they have a better chance of tabbing an Olympic berth.
“We’re not here to win a game. We’re here to win a tournament. We’re here to win the whole thing,” he was quoted saying during practice in a story published by the PBA website.
“Losing to [Latvia] does not get us knocked out. But losing—if we allow that first one to affect us in the second one (against Georgia), then we’re gonna be knocked out,” he added.
READ: Tim Cone dismisses notion that Gilas not big, fast, strong enough
Cone’s outlook may be the only logical step for the No. 37-ranked Philippines to take, considering how high Latvia is in the global basketball leaderboard.
The hosts are ranked sixth on the planet and lived up to that lofty billing with an 83-55 whipping of world No. 23 Georgia in Group A.
So hapless were the Jvarosnebi that national coach Aleksandar Dzikic and Duda Sanadze had very little to say about their performance.
Latvians flex might
“We didn’t respond well enough and long enough to their physicality and this result in the end is actually quite embarrassing, to be honest,” said Dzikic.
“[W]e’re very disappointed. The score is not what we are and what we worked [for]. We worked hard these past days and some weeks, but this score’s not us. From the bottom of our hearts, I just want to say sorry for our efforts—to our fans and families—because this is not really us,” Sanadze said.
Cone and his charges were witnesses to the merciless Latvian display. And so Gilas also knows how deflated the Georgians are.
And that could spell trouble for the Filipinos, too, as that means the Jvarosnebi will be dead-set on redeeming themselves in their clash set 8:30 p.m. on Thursday (Manila time).
“If we can beat one of those two teams (Latvia or Georgia), that means we can compete in the crossover, [and] you never know from there,” Cone said.
The Philippines will need at least a win over Georgia to improve its chances of making the next phase, where they could either play Cameroon, Montenegro, or Brazil.