Commissioner’s Cup woes leave Beermen stumped

The San Miguel Beermen capped off a week of celebration with a victory party at the San Miguel Head Office complex recently. The team took home the coveted Perpetual Trophy which is only given to teams which have won the Philippine Cup for three straight years. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

For some reason, San Miguel Beer has struggled to perform well in the tournament right after winning the PBA Philippine Cup.

“Everybody in the team knows that’s the problem we want to solve,” said Beermen coach Leo Austria, who admits being stumped to why the team cannot build a Grand Slam run because of a less-than-stellar performance in the Commissioner’s Cup.

“Maybe [it’s] because it takes long for the winning feeling to sink in,” Austria told SportsIQ, the Inquirer’s omni platform live sports talk show, recently.

“There’s a lot of guesting, celebrations, and the gap between the first two conferences is too short and we don’t have enough time to prepare unlike before,” Austria added. “The new format has 11 games in the elimination round and if you lose twice in the first few games, you start to panic.”

The Beermen hope it can rule the Commissioner’s Cup this time to fuel a possible Grand Slam run.