The PBA Philippine Cup has long been the stomping ground of the San Miguel Beermen in the June Mar Fajardo era. Six championships and the Perpetual Trophy prove this unrivaled dominance—something the Beermen are hoping to continue in this edition of the all-Filipino tournament.
San Miguel coach Leo Austria is well aware of this. In fact, he believes his team is the yardstick of this tournament, and they proved it unequivocally in their 104-93 drubbing of Season 49 two-time finalists Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
This is why the veteran tactician—the chief architect of the Beermen’s last six all-Filipino conference titles—is hoping his wards continue improving even after their latest superb performance.
“We are the barometer of the PBA at the all-Filipino. What we’re doing is we have to keep improving every day, every practice, every game,” said Austria in the postgame presser following San Miguel’s win over Ginebra. “I think tonight is a lot of improvement, and we want to be consistent on that because learning, hindi mo pwedeng kalimutan ‘yan. If you’re not learning, you’ll find out in the end they’ll catch up… I’m so happy for them because everybody is trying their best to improve on their individual skills.”
San Miguel Needs to Raise the Bar
More than consistency, Austria is also hoping his team can develop that killer instinct—the kind they showed against Ginebra when they started out guns ablaze before keeping up the pace up until the final buzzer. In fact, the Beermen were so locked in that the crowd darlings could even cut into that double-digit lead in the second half, only getting to within 11 once in the third and to within 12 twice in the fourth.
“We want to have the killer instinct…,” Austria emphasized. “We have to develop that because a lot of teams really are getting better and better, and we know we’re the target of every opponent.”
Austria should know. As an active consultant, he watched the Beermen lose their first PBA Philippine Cup Finals to the talented and determined Meralco Bolts last season on a Chris Newsome game-winner. It’s probably what he means about teams getting better and why San Miguel needs to respond in kind.
Ginebra is one of those teams expected to crowd San Miguel at the top of the 2024–25 PBA Philippine Cup—and yet the Beermen handled the two-time bridesmaids with relative ease.
It’s looking like all the learning is paying off and the killer instinct is starting to be developed. That’s bad news for the rest of the league.
