American coach Tim Cone, who leads Gilas Pilipinas, made comments after the semifinal loss to Brazil in the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers, stating, “It was painful to watch their run in the 3rd quarter.”
Although Gilas Pilipinas had a strong FIBA Olympic Qualifier Tournament, they fell to Brazil in the Riga semifinals and were eliminated.
In the post-game press conference, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone talked about the team’s OQT performance, emphasizing humility, and praised Brazil.
“We didn’t expect to be here, but then when we got here, we expect to win,” he began his remarks. “It’s very painful that we didn’t. After having a half-time lead and them going on a run on us to start the third quarter was painful to watch.”
While the tactician had nothing but praise for Brazil, he also said that losing Kai Sotto to injury before the game affected them immensely.
“There is a reason Brazil is the 12th-ranked team in the world, and they proved it tonight. We don’t want to make excuses, but losing Kai [Sotto] was big for us because it just took away our depth in the frontline and forced June Mar [Fajardo] to have to over-play minutes.”
Tim Cone
“Bottom line is, we just weren’t good enough tonight, and we have to be better. We always tell ourselves that ‘almost’ isn’t good enough. We got to find a way to get over the hum and get there. Tonight, we didn’t do that.”
“[Marcelinho] Huertas hit us hard, coming out of the ball screens and pulling up, doing nice things,” Cone noted in praise of Brazil’s 41-year-old veteran. “I think we kind of just panicked a little bit. We started doing a lot of one-on-ones; we weren’t moving the ball like we normally do,” he lamented.
In the end, although Gilas Pilipinas had a run to remember and a real shot at claiming the Olympic ticket, Cone said that they have to act with humility.
“We are not going to jump up and down and say, ‘We did our thing, and everybody was proud of us.’ Hopefully, that doesn’t get into our mindset. We need to keep pushing and moving forward,” the American explained.
Brazil will play against the winner of the Cameroon – Latvia matchup for a ticket to the Paris Olympics, while Gilas Pilipinas will have some time to build on their current performance.
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