Nash Racela got the monkey off his back, and with great relief.
Racela booked his first victory as a PBA coach last night after TNT KaTropa bamboozled its way past fading Phoenix Petroleum, 117-98, and the rookie tactician sees something good in the new philosophy he is trying to instill in his Texters as they jockey for playoff position in the Philippine Cup.
In just his second game, Racela bared that he is trying to change the entire mindset of this team that has a proud winning tradition, not at all worried that he is dealing with several multimillionaire superstars with different egos.
“I am happy getting this win, but this is not the main objective,” Racela said. “The important thing for me is for us to continue building as a team.”
Racela bared that he wants his players to again embrace the collegiate basketball attitude, something no team in this league is doing and has done so for the longest time.
“I want them to step on the gas all 48 minutes,” Racela told the Inquirer. “We are used to the passive game and the PBA shouldn’t be different from (the) college (brand of play).”
Kelly Williams was an honorable mention by Racela and the former MVP earned his first Player of the Game accolade in more than 18 months after shooting 18 points and plucking a team-high 10 rebounds in just under 20 minutes.
“That’s the kind of energy I want from all of them, like what Kelly played with,” Racela, who took over from Jong Uichico, said after his Texters rose to 3-2 and dealt the Fuel Masters a second straight lopsided loss in a 2-3 card.
“In the past, I noticed that we (Texters) would wait for the final five minutes before playing our hearts out,” Racela said. “And I don’t like that. We want hard basketball on both ends every time from now on.”
TNT started peeling away in the second period, opening up a 16-point lead at the halfway mark of the quarter before leading by as large as 28 and eventually adding to the miseries of this Phoenix crew that hasn’t done anything right in the past two weeks.
And while Racela is seeing great improvement in the Texters, the Fuel Masters are close to hitting rock bottom after going down in an ugly manner for the second straight game.
After taking down the defending champion Beermen three weeks ago, the Fuel Masters are in a tailspin that started when they gave up 21 straight points in the fourth quarter against lowly Mahindra.