ITCHING TO BREAK INTO WIN COLUMN
For teams looking to reboot their campaign in the season-ending conference, going 0-2 early in the Governors’ Cup sure wasn’t in their playbooks.
However, a mix of injuries, unfortunate incidents, and an evident lack of effort has plagued both San Miguel and Meralco in their conference openers, putting both squads in the cellar early in the tournament.
But on Saturday, one team will get a big lift as the two squads face off at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at 3 p.m.
A loss to Kia on Wednesday, their second straight to the expansion team for the season, was enough to force coach Leo Austria to remind his team of its sense of urgency, as the Beermen have been struggling since the Commissioner’s Cup.
“I think we have to regroup in our next game against Meralco. We cannot afford to have another 0-4,” Austria said, recalling the struggles of last conference.
The Beermen were shell-shocked in their game against the Carnival, as Arizona Reid was suffering from an upset stomach while June Mar Fajardo and the rest of the locals looked dazed from the get-go.
“I questioned the attitude of the players. It’s a matter of desire. Energy-wise meron silang energy pero di nilalabas e. Ang nalalabas nila negeative energy. Kailangan positive energy yung mailabas nila,” cried Austria, as another defeat would put his team in a precarious position of possibly making another early exit.
Meralco coach Norman Black is also another one who is looking for the right words to say after he emerged from the lockers on the heels of the Bolts’ big beatdown at the hands of GlobalPort.
“We look small. We don’t have the size to match up with a 7-footer,” he said, as it was only import Andre Emmett who brought his goods to the game on Tuesday.
Unlike Austria, Black is still not yet pressing that panic button and believes that Meralco can still turn an early defeat to a promising finish in this short elimination round.
“It’s a long conference. We have to play everybody. As we’ve learned last conference, the goal is to not end up in the bottom group and get eliminated, and that’s what we’re gunning for,” he said.
“San Miguel will be another tough game for us, but size-wise, we’re going to matchup better. We just have to worry about Fajardo, but we don’t have to worry about a 7-footer, an Asian import.” (RL)
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