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What's eating the Beermen?

Manila, Philippines-Awrind Santos and Alex Cabagnot walk away dejected after losing to Blackwater. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)

Call it “championship hangover” or whatever other name you want, but four games into the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, the “less-than-a-month-ago-crowned Philippine Cup champion” San Miguel Beermen find themselves mired in a winless run of four games. Losing to lowly expansion team Kia in its maiden Second Conference outing was “acceptable” to some, to a certain extent, because of the “hangover” excuse.

Others, however, said that SMB or any other team not named Blackwater (which was the only team that had lost to Kia before) should not have lost to the Carnival (Kia’s team name). [Note: As of this writing, Kia has also beaten Purefoods, so maybe the Carnival are legit. Who knows?] Losing to Ginebra in its second game was tolerable, since Ginebra is a good team when the collective heads of its players are in the game and, in the fourth quarter of the game versus San Miguel, they definitely were.

une Mar Fajardo now fights against much bigger opposition for rebounds. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)
une Mar Fajardo now fights against much bigger opposition for rebounds. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)



But then, when there were supposed to be no more excuses, and the perfect opportunity to break into the win column presented itself, San Miguel did the unthinkable, the unfathomable, and found a way to fall behind the league’s other expansion team, the Blackwater Elite, tried to play catch-up, and eventually succumbed to Marcus Douthit and his supporting cast composed of fellows like hot-shooting big man Bryan Faundo, unheralded guard Brian Heruela, and journeyman Gilbert Bulawan. The Beermen thus became the first non-expansion team to lose to both expansion teams. Rock bottom? Perhaps. The question now is, “Can things get even worse”?

Blackwater celebrates its first win in the PBA at the expense of the Beermen. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)
Blackwater celebrates its first win in the PBA at the expense of the Beermen. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)



In its fourth game, San Miguel faced the Alaska Aces, injury-stricken so far and also reeling from a blowout loss to GlobalPort just a week before. Everyone knew Alaska would fight tooth and nail, perhaps in a semi-attempt at revenge for having lost to the Beermen in the tightly-contested Philippine Cup Finals, but San Miguel was ready. For three quarters, despite the absence of injured lead guard Alex Cabagnot, the under-production of star forward Arwind Santos, and the all-out all the time Alaska defense, Coach Leo Austria’s squad hung tough, and even led entering the fourth quarter. Then, things just fell apart. Again.

The Alaska Aces outscored the Beermen 31-22 in the fourth quarter and turned a two-point deficit into a seven-point victory. Santos injured his knee somewhere along the way and played limited minutes. San Miguel import Ronald Roberts did all he could to try to get a win, finishing with impressive stats of twenty-four points and fourteen rebounds, but he was ineffective in the fourth quarter. MVP center JuneMar Fajardo broke out in the second half, where he scored majority of his points, and knocked down free throw after free throw, but his twenty-one points and seventeen rebounds were also not enough. Marcio Lassiter hit five three-pointers. Nope, still not enough.

Alaska had not been playing well itself, losing two and barely winning one in its first three games. However, the Aces had the excuse of injuries to its players. San Miguel, coincidentally, until the game against Alaska, when Cabagnot sat out and Santos’ knee got hurt, did not have any player ailing. Roberts is a more than capable import, raw but persistent, young but determined, and with athleticism out of this world. His statistics of twenty-three points, almost seventeen rebounds, and more than two blocks per game are more than adequate. However, he has been sent off, to be replaced by the much smaller but already proven Arizona “AZ” Reid, a former Best Import in the PBA.

Who or what is to blame for the disaster thus far? Surely all the key players of SMB who shined in the Philippine Cup have not produced at the same level in the past four games. The statistics speak for themselves. Scoring has dropped, shooting percentages are lower, averages across the board have suffered, and both Santos and Fajardo have not been in MVP form. Cabagnot is out of sync, as are most of the team’s guards. Yes, at times one or a few of them showed flashes of brilliance, but not a single group of five Beermen has been as lethal over an entire forty-eight minutes as everyone knows they are capable of being.

We watched the SMB-Kia game on TV, and were not surprised at the outcome since the Beermen were flat all throughout. We did, however, do play-by-play in all three of the next games, and observed that in all of them, San Miguel was clearly determined to win the game, fighting hard and attacking, at least for the most part. The chemistry does not seem to be there, and many opine that a big factor is that the trio of Santos, Fajardo, and Roberts cannot work together at the same time. As a result, they have rarely been on the floor as a frontline trio, and their obvious talents have not been maximized. Is this explanation acceptable? Perhaps it is initially, but should the team not figure out how to make the combination work? In any case, does the chemistry issue among the three influence how poorly the guards have been shooting from outside overall?

Ronald Roberts is talented but he was not a good fit with the Beermen. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)
Ronald Roberts is talented but he was not a good fit with the Beermen. (Czeasar Dancel/NPPA Images)



There has been great difficulty in getting the ball into Fajardo, as teams have geared their defenses primarily to stop entry passes to his sweet spots. Santos has shot horridly, especially from three-point range, and has not attacked the basket or gotten himself to the freethrow line. Cabagnot, whom we consider to be one of the best point guards of the last few seasons, has delivered assists, but not buckets, which is a concern since among the three point guards on the team, he is supposed to be the most offensively-capable.  The biggest problem now, though, is that the Beermen, as loss after loss happens, seem to be second-guessing themselves, growing more tentative from game to game. Surely, Coach Leo Austria and his assistants have been trying to concoct ways to barge into the win column. The problem is, the other teams have their eyes set on defeating the Beermen and seem to raise their level of play accordingly when facing them.

The thing is, San Miguel should not have lost to the expansion teams, which would have had them at 2-2, after suffering “acceptable” losses to Ginebra and Alaska. The fact though is they did, and are in deep trouble.

San Miguel has thus opted to make a drastic change in the hopes of salvaging their Conference. Out is Roberts, much to his disdain, and in is former Best Import of the Governors’ Cup (the Third Conference, where the imports are much smaller), Reid, formerly of the Rain or Shine Elastopainters. He stands only about 6’4”, is not the quickest player, and cannot leap that high, but his nose for the ball and will to win are commodities that make him attractive. Plus, so-called experts say, his perimeter play is supposed to free up Fajardo to operate freely inside, though we are not sure if Fajardo and Roberts really did fight for space in there. Chemistry is a notoriously difficult subject in high school, and the Beermen seem to be struggling in it now.

On 21 February 2015, in Cagayan de Oro City, the winless Beermen (0-4) will face the unbeaten Meralco Bolts (5-0) in a battle of first versus last. The Bolts are clicking on both ends, and their import, bundle of energy Josh Davis, has proven to be the perfect fit. With a few days to prepare for the challenge, a new import in tow, and what should almost be desperation to grab a first victory, will we finally see the San Miguel squad that dominated the Philippine Cup at times en route to the championship? There should be no more excuses.

Your guess is as good as ours. We will be there to cover the game. It should be interesting.

You can follow Charlie on Twitter @CharlieC.