San Miguel Beermen coach Leo Austria is all about his team building good habits—and one habit he wants his Beermen to learn like the palm of their hand is that of winning.
Winning every game, that is.
The Beermen won another game on Saturday, defeating the Blackwater Bossing, 116–92, for their seventh straight win after opening the PBA Philippine Cup with back-to-back losses. Even with the win, however, Austria was left somewhat wanting as he rued what he considers a bad start by his standards.
“I hope na maging consistent itong mga players namin. Kasi kanina, medyo hindi maganda ang start namin,” said Austria after San Miguel’s dismantling of the Bossing.
That not-so-good start saw San Miguel race out to a 24–16 lead at the end of one quarter, setting the stage for the blowout.
Consistency Breeds Good Habits for San Miguel
While San Miguel’s start against Blackwater was not necessarily terrible by any metric, Austria’s call for better basketball from his wards is understandable. After all, the playoffs are looming, and the defending champions have a great shot at nailing one of the four win-once incentives. So, forgive the 10-time champion coach if he wants his team building good habits from this point forward.
“What we want to happen is to prepare for the next game or the playoffs because it’s habit-forming,” said Austria. “Kailangan, we have to be consistent in what we were doing. Hindi namin tinitingnan kung six or seven straight won games kami. Basta every game, we want to win. Especially today na this game is not an assurance yet to get into the Top 4.”
With their win over Blackwater, the Beermen moved closer to that top-four finish. But best believe Austria will be asking for even better games from his team as they close out the eliminations against the Terrafirma Dyip on December 17 and the Meralco Bolts on December 19.
