2019 PBA Finals: Coach Victolero is outcoaching coach Austria

(c) PBA Media Bureau

Be honest Magnolia fans, majority of you were not that happy when you found out in 2016 that your favorite team hired coach Chito Victolero.

I will not blame you because back then, the resume of coach Chito was not that good and he doesn't even have the pedigree to give you confidence.

Fortunately for you, your management did their due diligence and may have found the best young coach of this era.

In this finals match-up, it was hard to see any advantage for the Hotshots. After five games, it becomes pretty clear that coach Chito and his coaching staff is way better than the coaching staff, led by coach Leo Austria, of the Beermen.

Want some evidence?

Magnolia is feasting on the paint. With Arwind Santos, June Mar Fajardo, Christian Standhardinger and Matthew Ganuelas-Rosser, it was hard to fathom Magnolia scoring that much in the paint. 

Surprisingly they did it, averaging 40.8 points in the paint per game against the 38.8 of San Miguel. In four of the five games, Magnolia outscored San Miguel by four or more in the paint.

Magnolia is also the more efficient team from beyond the arc. They are hitting 31.2% from beyond the arc compared to the 28.7% of the Beermen.

How about the fact that the San Miguel Beermen attempted more free-throw in each game of the series? The Beermen averaged 28 free-throw attempts compared to the 16.2 of Magnolia! I am not implying anything here, what I am saying is, the aggressiveness of Magnolia has rewarded the Beermen 11.8 free one-point shots and yet they are down in this series!