Tim Cone knows quite a lot about this team already, though.
At least on paper, Gilas Pilipinas got a favorable draw in the Asian Games, getting drawn in Group C with Jordan, Bahrain, and Thailand.
The thinking here is that aside from Jordan, a team Gilas can beat and has beaten in the past, no other team figures to give the Tim Cone-mentored squad a hard time.
Cone, however, does not share the same sentiment. In fact, he thinks Group C can pose a big, tougher-than-expected challenge for Gilas. And that is in part due to Bahrain’s ascent as an emerging powerhouse.
“All I know is that it’s gonna be a really tough group. I think everybody looks at Bahrain and says ‘There’s a pushover,’ but they absolutely dominated the qualifiers. They beat everybody by double figures... They were absolutely dominant,” Cone said of Bahrain, who won the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Syria last August.
And, as Cone pointed out, Bahrain dominated that tournament, winning all of its five games by at least 13 points—including a 104-67 drubbing of perennial Asian Games contender Kazakhstan and a 95-72 dismantling of Indonesia, a team that gave Gilas a hard time in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
The winningest coach in PBA is naturally worried—as he should, as the Wayne Chism-led squad looks very formidable, indeed.
“Bahrain is a team to really worry about and focus on. Obviously, we need to get off to a good start and handle Bahrain, but it’s not gonna be easy,” admitted Cone. “Just like a lot of the African teams, they have good size and they have good athleticism, and they got a couple of small guards who shoot the ball lights out. And they’re very good on pressure, so those are things we’re gonna have to be able to handle.”
Incidentally, Gilas will open its Asian Games campaign against—who else?—Bahrain on September 26. The team will next take on Thailand on September 28, before facing off against Jordan on September 30.