‘Tired’ Dandan on another Kia loss: ‘We have to suck it up, move forward’

Ricky Dandan. PBA IMAGES

Even new Kia coach Ricky Dandan couldn’t exactly tell how the Picanto quickly lost control of their game against the Magnolia Hotshots on Wednesday.

Kia led 49-47 at the end of the first half but it was all Magnolia after as the Hotshots, led by Paul Lee, left the Picanto in the dust thanks to a blistering 34-11 run.

“I don’t know what happened. I can’t explain it I have to review tape, watch the third quarter and see what happened, but from my recollection we played according to plan in the first two quarters only to play, suddenly, differently in the third,” said Dandan.

It was a tale of two halves for Kia, which got outscored 77-28 in the last two quarters, before getting blown out, 124-77.

Dandan made his head coaching debut after replacing Chris Gavina, who stepped down just before the new year, but it seems that the job has already taken its toll.

“I feel that I have been coaching here forever. It’s tiring. I feel very tired. I tried to encourage our guys to make a comeback, tried to use the lineup, obviously, to no avail. But we have to move on, shrug this off and prepare for Alaska on Sunday,” Dandan said.

The Picanto dropped to 0-3 this conference and suffered their 15th consecutive loss dating back to last season and to make matters worse, they’ve lost a combined 70 points in their last two games and the 47-point margin equaled the franchise’s worst loss.

“We just have to move forward and get better. There will be a lot of adjustments of course but we have to make do, we need to maximize the roster that we have, regardless of who we play and regardless of the situation,” he said.

“I’ll say it again, we just have to suck it up and move forward and try to find way to make the score closer to give us a chance in the end.”

Kia has a lot of concerns to address but Dandan said motivation shouldn’t be one.

“When you’re in the PBA especially with a team like Kia, the situation is self-motivating enough and I believe that if you’re a coach or even a player and you can’t motivate yourself, nobody else can motivate you so I believe firmly on that,” he said.

“One should not rely on external motivation. You’re situation playing in the PBA is motivation enough. What you do here is putting the food on the table for your family, that is motivation enough. if you cannot motivate yourself, nobody else can motivate you.”