Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone plans to retain the same lean pool of players as they prepare for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers in November.

Cone is adamant in sticking with the current Gilas core despite a quarterfinal exit in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The decorated mentor would like to have the same personnel who already know his system and have already built chemistry, rather than force a revamp with the home-and-away double-round robin World Cup qualifiers just months away.

Gilas will face Asia Cup tormentors, No. 7-ranked Australia and New Zealand, and Guam in its bid for a fourth straight World Cup participation.

“You know, we put this team together for the long term and try to get them to grow together and get better,” Cone said.

“And if we’re going to just go ahead and change personnel, then we’re all back to zero again.”

Gilas had a short three-week training for the Asia Cup. Main center June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez of San Miguel Beer and Calvin Oftana of TNT joined the build-up just days before the competition due to their Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals commitments.

The Nationals flew to the Middle East nation with just their 12-man roster and left behind reserve forward Troy Rosario and point guard RJ Abarrientos.

Bannered by naturalized player Justin Brownlee, young guns Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu and Carl Tamayo, and other veterans Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Jami Malonzo and Japeth Aguilar, Gilas plunged into action hoping to end a four-decade title drought.

But back-to-back setbacks to Chinese Taipei, 87-95, and the Tall Blacks, 86-94, pushed Gilas to the edge.

The Philippines had to rally from six points down to get past Iraq, 66-57, at the end of the group stage and rely on Brownlee’s heroics to force overtime and get past host Saudi Arabia, 95-88, for a quarterfinal seat against Australia.

The Boomers proved too much for the 10-man Gilas, who played sans injured Oftana and Perez, as they sent the Filipinos packing in a dominant 84-60 victory to advance in the Final Four against Iran.

Found wanting, it’s back to the drawing board for Gilas, which hopes to 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto back in the fold after recovering from a knee injury he sustained early in the year while playing in the Japan B.League.

“But at this point, it’s really too early to look, you know, and say, well, this is what we need at this point. We got to really digest this,” Cone said.

“We got to look at the video. We got to see what’s going on and go forward.”