The early buildup and additional motivation of bombing out in the finals of the previous season had sparked Magnolia to do well in the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association On Tour.
Hotshots head coach Chito Victolero said their impressive start in the preseason tournament should be credited to the winning mentality they developed during their regular practices.
So far, the Hotshots remain undefeated in four games to share the lead with Rain or Shine.
“We’re building a winning culture,” Victolero said.
“The key to winning in the tournament starts in practices. For us to win those big battles, we need to win the small battles which started during our training sessions and the players are embracing it.”
In the preseason tourney, the Hotshots were able to draw balanced contribution from veterans Mark Barroca and Jio Jalalon, new faces like Jed Mendoza and James Laput and a little bit of everything from Jackson Corpuz and Jerrick Ahanmisi to keep their unblemished slate intact.
“Since I started coaching here in 2017, we never had a long time to prepare,” Victolero added.
“This is probably the only other time where I had a longer time to prepare the squad and instill more teaching, and so far, it made our team more effective.”
The early buildup had also helped out the Hotshots’ return to form.
Magnolia didn’t wait for the season to begin before retooling its squad and, as early as last month, it brought in key pieces by adding Abu Tratter and David Murrell to shore up their front court.
With Ian Sangalang still trying to break his way after being sidelined by a rare ailment on his thyroid, the Hotshots got much-needed boost with the inclusion of the 6-foot-5 Tratter and 6-foot-2 Murrell.
“We’ve been looking for that extra post presence for a long time and we really felt the need for that when Ian didn’t play for a long time last conference,” Victolero added.
“Now, we got those players and the good thing is, we acquired them right before the start of the season, so there’s enough time for them to adjust to our system.”
With Sangalang sidelined for the majority of the Governors’ Cup, the Hotshots limped their way to the playoffs as they lost their first three games before winning six of their last seven games to enter the quarterfinals.
But the fifth-seed Hotshots lost to No. 4 Meralco, which was then carrying a twice-to-beat advantage in the playoffs and got booted out of the Final Four race.
Under Victolero, Magnolia has been a consistent playoff performer and several times, the team reached the championship round and even won the season-ending Governors’ Cup in 2018.
“Perhaps, our failure to reach the championship round in any of those tournaments last season had somehow motivated us as well in the preseason,” said Victolero, whose squad failed to reach the finals in the past three conferences.
