Tim Cone’s first assignment as full-time Gilas Pilipinas head coach hit a snag as big men June Mar Fajardo and AJ Edu would be sidelined in the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
But the multi-titled American mentor is hardly bothered.
In a news briefing yesterday, Cone said he is ready to roll with the punches in dealing with the injuries suffered by Fajardo and Edu ahead of their game against Hong Kong on Thursday at the Tsuen Wan Stadium in Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei on Monday at the Philsports Arena.
Fajardo, a seven-time Most Valuable Player in the Philippine Basketball Association, begged off after suffering a calf injury while leading San Miguel Beer to the Commissioner’s Cup title in the PBA while Edu has yet to recover from the knee injury he sustained while playing for the Toyama Grouses in the Japan B. League.
Cone said they have to move forward and find a way to win without the two stars.
“We’re still searching for ourselves and we don’t expect it now. We know we won’t be as good now as the next two to three windows. We love our size even though we won’t have June Mar and AJ Edu,” Cone said during the press conference graced by Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio and executive director Erika Dy.
“These are things that happen in any basketball game. You have guys that have injuries, you have guys that have guys that have wives giving birth to babies. You just have to roll with the punches and continue to deal with it and that’s what I like about this team. This isn’t an all-star team. This is a team that we will keep together.”
Fortunately, Japeth Aguilar responded and agreed to power Gilas in the first window.
He, however, will not be with the team when it leaves for the former British colony as he has to attend to his wife who just gave birth last Sunday.
“Japeth is going to play. He is really God-sent because we lost a lot of size losing June Mar and AJ,” said Cone, expressing gratitude to the sacrifice made by the Barangay Ginebra veteran.
It isn’t the first time for Cone to make key adjustments entering the crucial stretch of his preparation for a major international event.
In the previous 19th Asian Games last year, Cone also had to drop four players — Calvin Abueva, Mo Tautuaa, Jason Perkins and Terrence Romeo — as they were not part of the long list submitted by the federation to the organizers.
With that, Cone had to activate Kevin Alas, CJ Perez, Chris Ross, Arvin Tolentino and Marcio Lassiter, enabling the country to win its first gold medal in the prestigious continental showpiece in 61 years.
Now, Cone will be resting his hopes on PBA stars Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, Chris Newsome, Aguilar and Perez as well as young players like Kai Sotto, Kevin Quiambao and Carl Tamayo with Justin Brownlee as naturalized player as they seek to compete in the Olympics for the first time since 1972.
“Our goal is to make the Olympics and whether it be Paris or LA in four years, our goal is to make it to the Olympics,” Cone said.
