Gilas boys in full force

We’re trying to be smart with our practices and make sure everybody participates.

Unlike in the past, members of Gilas Pilipinas were in full force when they huddled for their second practice under head coach Tim Cone in preparation for the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Five-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo was finally in attendance after missing the first practice last week due to ankle injury.

Cone said having Fajardo around elevated the team, turning it into a force to be reckoned with that is capable of retaining the country’s hold of basketball supremacy in the prestigious 11-nation tournament.

“It was great seeing June Mar here. He makes the team look different. He makes everything look different out there,” said Cone, looking forward to parade a potent twin-tower combination of Fajardo and Greg Slaughter.

“All he did was to watch what everyone was doing and picks up the pace just like that. He’s such a morale-booster to the team.”

Gilas had a short practice Thursday night at the Meralco gym, where Cone stated that his main objective was to put everybody on the same page since they have such a short period of preparation before marching to battle in December.

“We’re trying to be smart with our practices and make sure everybody participates. This shows that we’re on the same page,” Cone said.

“Today, our key words were ‘same page mentality.’ We want to have the same-page mentality offensively and even more defensively.”

Attendance has always been a problem for Gilas Pilipinas every time it preparers for an international competition.

When the squad was preparing for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Yeng Guiao failed to have the luxury of training with complete personnel as the finals of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup was still in full swing.

The only time everybody got on board was 10 days before the competition, prompting the squad to suffer a disastrous finish in the biggest basketball stage in the world.

All 15 pool members were in attendance with RR Pogoy, Troy Rosario and Jayson Castro of TNT KaTropa showing up despite having a game the previous night.

Matthew Wright of Phoenix, Vic Manuel of Alaska and Christian Standhardinger and Chris Ross of San Miguel Beer were also there to join the Ginebra players like Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio, Stanley Pringle, Scottie Thompson and Art de la Cruz.

Marcio Lassiter was also there, but failed to join the drills due to injury.

Cone expects him to be on the floor next Monday.