After four straight championships then being eliminated “early” last Conference, the Purefoods Star Hotshots were given a well-deserved break by Coach Tim Cone. In this conference, the franchise looks to reclaim their old swagger after finishing third in the elimination and move up in the semifinals after drubbing the Aces twice for a series sweep.
Day of Dethronement
In a quarterfinals series last conference, where they had to overcome a twice-to-beat disadvantage to advance, Purefoods suffered an early elimination at the hands of the Meralco Bolts. On that day, the four-conference reign of Purefoods ended but on the other hand, it lit a fire for the team according to Mark Barroca.
“Yun [hunger] ‘yung nawala. Nagpupunta na lang kami sa laro just to show up. Wala na ‘yung panggigigil namin,” shared the former FEU guard. “Ngayon, bumalik na ‘yung hunger namin sa game,” said Barroca on how he sees the old fire in his teammates this ongoing conference.
Back to Basics
Barroca also cited being battered, exhausted, and fatigued during the four-straight long conferences they had to go through. In the Philippine Cup, he shared how they focused more on getting points on the board than defending, which is very uncharacteristic of the Hotshots in their championship run.
“Sinasabi nga ni coach [Tim Cone] hindi pa tapos ‘yung time namin. Nagstruggle kami last conference, nung natalo kami nun binigyan niya kami ng break. Sabi niya sa amin watch out pagbalik namin sa practice,” recalled Barroca as he shares how they pushed hard during training to give more emphasis on defense.
On what brought back their old form, Barroca just saw one thing, “Depensa talaga. Every game dapat makagawa ka ng maraming stops instead ng maraming points.”
The Next Stage
Barroca shared that they just want to take the semifinals one game at a time, a cliche for veteran teams. In facing Talk ‘N Text in the next round, a great series between two fabled franchises awaits to unfold once more.
We might just see a resumption of a paused reign soon as the Hotshots may have regained their old killer form.
