Ball’s in your court

The fate of Gilas Pilipinas’ campaign to end a four-decade title drought now rests in the hands of the players themselves, who carry the hopes and pride of a basketball-crazy nation in the 33rd FIBA Asia Cup.

Gilas is battling tooth and nail against a familiar foe and a dangerous Chinese Taipei at press time to set its long and arduous trek to the top of the prestigious continental showpiece in motion at the expectedly Filipino fans-filled King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Gilas coach Tim Cone and his coaching staff did all they could to prepare the team sans a key big and players dealing with fatigue and health issues, to compete and hopefully prevail over the continent’s best.

The decorated mentor squeezed in as many adjustments, game plans, scouting of opposition, integration of players and system fine-tuning as he could in the three-week buildup that included a couple of tune-up matches.

“I’m never happy about preparations. You always feel like there’s something you’re missing, something you haven’t done,” Cone said.

But whether the preparations are sufficient and enough will only be decided by the Gilas players themselves.

The coaching staff could only do so much.

Cone could only bark instructions from the sidelines, the rest of the work is on those five players inside the court.

“It’s really on the players now. We’ve done what we can as a staff and now it’s on the players to go out there and just really play their game. That’s the whole point of it,” added Cone, whose first task is to steer Gilas into the next round.

Facing Chinese Taipei would be quite a challenge after Gilas absorbed an 84-91 loss to the Taiwanese’s backyard last February during the third window of the tournament’s qualifiers.

Gilas would have to try to get payback without injured 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto (knee) and with June Mar Fajardo (calf) and Calvin Oftana (sprained ankle) not in full health following their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals showdown.

Cone is putting his faith in his personnel to deliver whenever their numbers are called.

Composed of the local and international pro ranks’ cream of the crop, the tactician will allow Gilas players to play their game.

“We don’t want to make it so restrictive for them that they can’t play their natural game. These guys are talented players. So, we’re gonna let them play to their flow and give them some structure when we can,” said Cone, who steered Gilas to the gold medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games two years ago.

“That’s the key about the national team. You got to let the national team players really play to their own game.”

Gilas displayed grit and composure when it completed a come-from-behind 103-98 win over the Macau Black Bears in its send-off game in Manila last Monday. It then dominated FIBA Asia Cup main draw participant Jordan, 75-61, early Sunday (Manila time) in its final tune-up game before marching into the real battle.

Cone could only hope it will translate to the games that count.

“Hopefully, that’s what we’ve achieved a little bit. But like I said you’ll never really know,” he said.

Gilas will take on New Zealand on Friday before capping its Group D assignment against Iraq on Sunday.