San Miguel Beer coach Jorge Gallent attributed the Beermen’s 0-2 start in the East Asia Super League season 2 home-and-away tournament to the team’s unfamiliarity to playing in the international stage.
The Beermen, the PBA’s most dominant team with 29 league championships, suffered a 101-85 beating at the hands of the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena.
“(In the PBA) Everybody knows each other, everybody knows everybody in a 12-team league. We know the adjustments, what they are trying to give us, what we’re trying to get,” Gallent said after the game.
“Here (in EASL) we’re just…we know the players, we know who the shooters were, we know their numbers, 12, 69, 23, (Alec) Brown and (Treveon) Graham and we know who will shoot, but having said that, maybe our schemes were not enough,” he added.
“No excuses, but we just have to continue to adjust as a team that should be more exposed to international play. That’s on us.”
Brown, the 7-foot-1 American reinforcement was a handful for San Miguel, stinging the Beermen with 27 points on a near-perfect 5-of-6 shooting from three-point territory, to go along with nine rebounds.
The Beermen opened the second season with a narrow 81-87 loss to the Korean club team Suwon KT Sonicboom on Oct. 2.
The SMB mentor said playing in the PBA and then, the added new schedule of seeing action in the EASL, along with the upcoming second window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers, is a new challenge they need to address.
Eight-time PBA June Mar Fajardo and wingman CJ Perez are part of the Gilas Pilipinas pool which begins its training camp at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna on Friday, November 15.
“This is maybe, again I don’t want to make excuses to the international crowd but it’s a thing that we have to cope with the schedule, everything that is going on,” Gallent said.
“You know so well we have two players who are going to start their Gilas practice two days from now. They’re gonna be in a two-a-day facility in Calamba,” he added.
“Of course, we’re in between this, so we’re trying our best to get their schedule. We lost Game Six against Ginebra (in the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series), and now we are put in a spot. We’re not making excuses, but it’s really a difficult, difficult schedule for us.”
The Beermen’s first foray in the EASL during the 2023 Champions Week in Japan was a complete disaster as they failed to score a win and lost by an average of 41.5 points.
