AFTER MAKING OQT SEMIS, LOSING NEVER FELT SO GOOD FOR TIM CONE

FOR a guy who's never really used to losing, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone will gladly take the loss this time. 

The result of Thursday’s game will go down as a loss for the Philippines, but it is also Gilas Pilipinas who will be advancing to the next phase of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament even after their 96-94 defeat to Georgia.

Georgia needed to win by 19 or more points to make the semis after getting blownout by Latvia in their first game. 

The 25-time PBA champion coach, two-time grandslam winner and Asian Games gold medalist will never get used to losing - but this time, he'll make an exception.  

"It’s the first time I felt good about losing," said Cone after the defeat during the postgame press conference.

Gilas stormed back from a 20-point deficit following a poor start where they trailed, 16-0, only to fight back and keep the game close. But as they continued to cut the gap late in the fourth, Gilas made a calculated decision not to try to win the game by forcing an overtime given the quotient situation. 

"We couldn’t go into overtime. We had an opportunity to shoot a three at the end to try and get us into overtime and play. But we just felt we didn’t want them to give an opportunity to try to extend the lead in overtime," said Cone.

So convinced was the coaching staff to not play overtime that Cone, in hindsight, felt he made a coaching blunder when he allowed Chris Newsome to take a second free throw in the final possession of the game instead of incurring a violation.

Goga Bitadze missed an attempt to score at Georgia’s own basket in the final seconds. Under FIBA rules, a basket does not count if a player deliberately scores a goal in his/her team’s basket, but it counts if it is accidental.

"He (Bitadze) missed a dunk, follow-up, that was a bad coaching decision on my part. I should have had Newsome hold the ball and not even shoot the second free throw and get a violation. That would have been the smart move. But I blanked out. I didn’t think about it. We were lucky we didn’t go into overtime," said Cone.

Critical adjustment saves day for Gilas 

That may have been the only time Cone had a coaching mistake in the game against Georgia. With his team down by as many as 20 points, Cone decided to go on a zone defense to counter Georgia’s inside presence.

"I think the key move was when we went to zone. I’m not really a zone guy but they were just eating us up individually. They were just isolating on us, blowing by us, so we had to go to zone and it worked. They struggled with it a little bit and we got some confidence, and we just stuck with it the rest of the way," he shared. 

"That’s very rare for me. But in this kind of situation, in this kind of tournament, you do what you have to do. So I was really pleased. We didn’t even practice zone. We have not practiced zone at all, ever. For them to step in and play zone like that, and be good, it was amazing." 

2024-07-04T18:12:02Z dg43tfdfdgfd