'We're going to need every support we can get, because we're still searching for ourselves,' says Tim Cone as Gilas Pilipinas hosts Chinese Taipei to close out the first FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers window
MANILA, Philippines – Tim Cone hopes a mammoth crowd turns up as Gilas Pilipinas plays the first home game of its four-year journey.
The Philippines hosts Chinese Taipei at the PhilSports Arena on Sunday, February 25, to close out the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and Cone wants to bank on their legion of fans to help the team get the job done.
“It would be awesome if we could sell it out and really have everybody come support us,” said Cone before the qualifiers came off the wraps.
“We’re going to need every support we can get, because we’re still searching for ourselves. We have not found ourselves by any means and we do not expect to at this point.”
Building for the next four years with Cone at the helm, the Nationals got off to a rousing start as they coasted to a 30-point road rout of lowly Hong Kong on February 22.
The expectation is for the Philippines to also beat Chinese Taipei convincingly, owing to the disparity in their world rankings, with the Filipinos sitting at No. 38 and the Taiwanese far behind at No. 78.
But Cone is wary of the visitors.
“I’ve been hearing around that we’re such heavy favorites against Taiwan and I’m watching their video and wow, this team is really strong,” said Cone.
“They got good size, they shoot the ball extremely well, they play with pace, and they’ve been together for a long time.”
Chinese Taipei absorbed an 89-69 beating at the hands of New Zealand to open the qualifiers, but not without giving the highly favored Tall Blacks an early scare as the Taiwanese trailed by just a single point at halftime.
One man the Filipinos have to worry about is Liu Cheng, a veteran guard of the Shanghai Sharks in the Chinese Basketball Association who scored 20 points with 4 steals against New Zealand.
“It is a team that we’re going to have to really reckon with,” said Cone. – Rappler.com