LA Tenorio to draw inspiration from Tim Cone's system in handling Gilas Youth

Newly-appointed Gilas Pilipinas Youth head coach LA Tenorio is taking inspiration from the men’s national basketball team’s sustained excellence since Tim Cone’s takeover of the top coaching spot.

Tenorio on Wednesday was named as the youth team coach, just a day before Gilas Pilipinas defeated New Zealand in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.

For his part, Tenorio fully understands the weight of his responsibilities and what it would take to help the youth program recover from its last place finish in the FIBA Under-17 World Cup.

Still, Tenorio remained excited as he looks to exploit a system similar to the one designed by Cone which has now forged history after the other. 

“Big shoes to fill in. But I’m looking forward to being the head coach. Excited sa kung ano ‘yung mangyayari,” Tenorio said after Gilas' historic win over New Zealand.

It also helps that Tenorio has been under the mentorship of Cone as a pro player in the PBA.

“But the bottom line for me is I’m not thinking right away about winning or getting into the position that we want to. It’s really to develop the young players [into becoming] future Gilas Pilipinas men's players. And it’s very crucial now because most likely the system that I’m gonna run is the same system that we run in the men’s team to have that transition lang,” he added. 

Tenorio, a former Gilas player himself, also praised the national team who defeated the Kiwis in front of the home crowd.

“There’s a lot of good things happening with this core group, beating Latvia in the OQT and now beating New Zealand for the first time. The future of Philippine basketball is really [bright], may malaking chance talaga [in the international stage]. ‘Yung mga ganitong klaseng games ito ‘yung mas nakakapag-boost ng confidence ng players and of course sa team at sistema. That’s the most important thing,” he concluded.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News