Cone rules out Gilas pool expansion

Gilas Pilipinas celebrates after winning the gold medal against Thailand.

POC Media Pool

MANILA, Philippines — As much as he wanted to after being impressed by a bevy of standouts in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games, Gilas Pilipinas “A” team head coach Tim Cone is not keen on expanding its training pool anytime soon.

Cone served as one of the biggest fans of the alternative Gilas unit squad under the tutelage of his pal Norman Black—a team defied all odds in delivering the country’s second straight and 20th overall men’s basketball gold medal in the biennial sports meet.

And a lot of players—new and old who have become part of the previous Gilas teams—left an impression on Cone, leading to calls by fans for consideration of their inclusion to the main squad.

Among those were Robert Bolick, Ray Parks Jr., Thirdy Ravena and Matthew Wright. But for Cone, there’s a reason why he keeps his core small and intact given the tight schedule of the PBA and overseas leagues for FIBA tournaments.

“We’ve had all those guys on our radar but there are only 12 guys,” said Cone on the heels of Gilas’ 70-64 win over host Thailand in the controversial but satisfying finale, crediting the return to fine form of Jamie Malonzo, who’s also in Cone’s “A” team.

“We don't want to increase it to a huge pool because it's too unwieldy for the time of preparation that we have.”

Cone admitted having Bolick, Parks and Wright in discussions all these years along with Jordan Heading and the Ravena brothers (Kiefer and Thirdy) before picking his final squad that mainly competes in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments.

Since being named the permanent head coach of Gilas last year, Cone veered away from the traditional creation of big national team pool—usually made up of 20 players every tournament—by establishing a 12-man core.

For Cone, having a big pool is only applicable with long preparation time like Gilas under coach Chot Reyes did in the 2023 FIBA World Cup hosting after being together for more than three months.

But the FIBA calendar is long, winding and with only short breaks now, thus his decision to keep a tight-knit unit.

Leading the permanent team that made waves overseas, including a massive 89-80 upset of World No. 6 Latvia at its own home in the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers, is naturalized player Justin Brownlee, nine-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo, 7-foot-3 sensation Kai Sotto and Japan B.League standout Dwight Ramos.

Also in the fray are rising stars Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo and AJ Edu, PBA vets Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, CJ Perez, Calvin Oftana and Malonzo. Cone recently added Quentin Millora-Brown, Troy Rosario, RJ Abarrientos and Juan Gomez de Liaño.

They are tasked to compete mainly in bigger tournaments like the FIBA Asia, World Cup Qualifiers and the upcoming 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya leading to the ultimate goal of making it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as part of Cone’s four-year roadmap.

And for Cone, that might be the pool for good as Gilas braces for the second window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers next February at home against Australia and New Zealand in Group A.

“When you're talking about maybe five, six practices before you have to play, you can't bring in 20 guys and get them ready. So, like I said, there's only 12 guys,” he clarified.

Cone’s Gilas is coming off a 2-0 sweep of the first window against Guam just before the SEAG, which wasn’t part of the FIBA calendar as well as the schedule of PBA and overseas leagues that prompted the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to field a different squad.

SBP managed to form a still competitive and contender Gilas “B” team for SEAG. But Thailand’s multiple rule changes ruled half of it as ineligible before Black successfully included last-minute replacements for the gold medal nonetheless.