Newly-crowned Austria keeps grinding

San Miguel Beer players and staff got their much-deserved rest following a successful repeat conquest in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup finals.

But not head coach Leo Austria.

The grind continues for the now 11-time champion as he plots the Beermen’s build-up for the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup next month.

Austria is tasked with redeeming San Miguel’s pride after a disappointing 10th-place finish in the previous edition of the import-laden conference.

“Sometimes, it depends on the kind of import you get. Getting a good import sometimes is a matter of luck,” Austria said after San Miguel finished off TNT, 92-77, in Game 6 to close the best-of-seven championship series rematch Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The embattled Beermen struggled with their reinforcement in Season 49 in a forgettable campaign that saw them put up a dismal 5-7 record in the elimination round.

San Miguel fielded four different imports in Quincy Miller, Torren Jones, Jabari Narcis and Malik Pope but still missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

“I hope that this coming conference, the import that we’re pursuing will fit (with the team). Until now, we haven’t signed up for an import but maybe in the next few days,” added Austria, who got his reappointment as Beermen mentor on that fateful conference rate as replacement for Jorge Gallent.

The very reason why the now third-winningest PBA tactician won’t be enjoying the vacation perks that the likes of his prized big man, June Mar Fajardo, playing assistant coach Chris Ross, CJ Perez and others will have before going back to barracks for training.

“I won’t be able to go on vacation,” said the 67-year-old coach, who tied TNT coach Chot Reyes and Norman Black with 11 titles each behind Baby Dalupan (15) and Barangay Ginebra’s Tim Cone (25).

“I know the management will be looking for me regarding the import. It’s a job. It’s a whole year-round job.”

San Miguel is keen on bringing import Bennie Boatwright back with the hopes of reclaiming the Commissioner’s Cup crown he helped the Beermen win in 2024.

In fact, Austria bared that the management is in constant communication with Boatwright. However, the Gilas Pilipinas naturalization candidate is still playing for the Daegu KOGAS Pegasus in the Korean Basketball League.

“We have constant communication with him. But the problem now with him is his last game in the eliminations in Korea will last until April 8,” he said.

“We’ll start by March 11, so probably he’ll miss at least the first four games.”

The 29-year-old Boatwright had a sensational run with the franchise, helping the Beermen defeat Magnolia in the finals in six games.

San Miguel is crossing its fingers that it will be able to fly the University of Southern California Trojan product much earlier.

“We don’t know yet but maybe he’ll suddenly opt-out (of his KBL stint),” Austria said.

The mentor added that Boatwright based on their initial talks is very much interested in once again hooking up with the team.

“We’re really talking to him. We’re not sure if it’s really him (that we’ll get). (But) the last time our manager (Gee Abanilla) talked to him, he said he’s so excited to come back to San Miguel,” Austria said.