San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone dropped by at the practice of Smart-Gilas Team Pilipinas national men's basketball team at the SM Mall of Asia last Thursday. And he was impressed by the chemistry the players displayed during the practices.
?To me, personally, that?s the first thing I look at, to see how our guys get along, see how they?re passing the ball to each other. When you see they?re giving high fives, they?re talking, they?re smiling, and communicating, then you know you have a good group of guys," Cone was quoted by interAKTV.
Cone steered the Philippine Centennial Team to a bronze medal finish in the 1998 Hiroshima Asian Games. His comments provided added inspiration to the team who is out to redeem the glory days of Philippine basketball who won the title in the last Asian Basketball Confederation tournament to be held in the country in 1973.
?They knew what they want to do. They had great spacing, they?re well-constructed. They got size, guys who can shoot outside, guys who can penetrate, they got the quickness in the backcourt ? Jayson [Castro], LA [Tenorio] and Jimmy [Alapag] ? so it?s a well-constructed team,? added Cone.
Meanwhile, national coach Chot Reyes was impressed by the performance of the national team when they ended their twice-a-day practice last Thursday.
?It was a good practice. Considering that we had a long week of hard practices, I was pretty impressed with this practice,? Reyes told InterAKTV. It was a great improvement from the behavior of the players during their first drill last week which Reyes called "the worst f****g practice," when they returned from a series of exhibition games in Lithuania.
The nationals showed clear-cut offense, proper coordination, and solid plays on both ends of the court. After that they will return to once-a-day session starting today. They are scheduled to play a tune-up game with the New Zealand national squad on July 9.
On its return from the Oceania continent, Gilas is scheduled to play against a PBA all-star selection on July 23 and with the Kazakhstan national team on July 26 as their final preparation for the FIBA-Asia tournament on August 1-11, 2013.
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