Austria stumped as Beermen continue ‘embarrassing’ slide
San Miguel head coach Leo Austria. PBA Images/Nuk Sabio
MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Beer head coach Leo Austria admitted that he has exhausted all means of motivation for his players after another loss in the 2015 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Still searching for consistency, the Beermen staggered to 0-4 start after a 107-100 defeat to the shorthanded Alaska Aces in rematch of last conference’s finals.
“There’s no excuse for us because we’re professionals. We have to do what we’re supposed to do,” Austria said.
“And right now I really don’t know what kind of motivation I’m going to tell the players because there’s no amount of words or motivation that could ignite them except themselves. It will come within. No matter what I say, it has to come from them,” he added.
Austria summed up the Beermen’s campaign so far as “embarrassing” as they went from hero to zero in a matter of weeks.
“I think we need to have a meeting between the coaching staff to know what we’re going to do and what happened to us,” said Austria, who was the last man to come out of the losing dugout at the Smart Araneta Coliseum – the same venue where he steered his team to the Philippine Cup title nearly a month ago. “And it’s really embarrassing for us that after the championship now we’re 0-4.”
“No team will give us a win. We’ve never been there with our game,” said Austria.
Reigning MVP and Philippine Cup best player June Mar Fajardo carried the Beermen in the setback to the Aces with a near triple-double effort of 21 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists while import Ronald Roberts Jr. had 24 points and 14 rebounds in what turned out to be his final game.
Former two-time Best Import Arizona Reid is set to replace Roberts in San Miguel’s next game against unbeaten Meralco on Saturday.
PH Cup Finals MVP Arwind Santos has been firing blanks, especially at the three-point range where he is 1-of-22, so far this season and so has veteran guard Alex Cabagnot, who hasn’t been himself since giving the Beermen a boost in the playoffs in his return.
“I saw that the other teams wanted to win more than us. They really prepared for us because we just came from the championship and they want to beat us,” Santos said in Filipino. “We may be at the bottom but nothing is impossible.”
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