The Philippine national basketball team will leave on September 23.
Gilas Pilipinas is now locked in at the Inspire Academy in Laguna after entering the facility on Saturday morning. There, the team will brush up on the fundamentals for the 19th Asian Games in China.
The squad, now headed by Tim Cone, got together after the FIBA World Cup and features a core of PBA players who played in that tournament, along with returning national team members. They are reinforced by naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame.
"We're gonna be foundational, we're gonna be fundamental and get to whatever level we can get to by doing it the right way," Cone told PBA.ph before the training camp.
Gilas Pilipinas is expected to hold practices twice a day and will take on the Meralco Bolts in a tune-up game. The national team will also play against the Changwon LG Sakers in a friendly match on Friday, which will be open to the public. Cone said it would be a "really good test" for the Philippines.
"We really don't have pretty much time to play a lot of friendly games. To me the practices are more important than the friendlies because we learn more in practices," Cone added, as the players will try to adjust to his system within two weeks.
The squad will leave for Hangzhou on September 23, and will take on Bahrain, Thailand, and Jordan starting September 26 in the Asian Games.
(MDB)