Over the existence of this blog, I’ve had the opportunity to have candid conversations with a lot of people who are insiders when it comes to PBA basketball. In these conversations, one thing about coaching keeps cropping up: the X’s and O’s matter a lot less than fans would want to believe.

Of course, there have been coaches whose attention to game planning and preparation have given their team solid edges, such as Ron Jacobs and Tim Cone. Still, at the end of the day, the biggest impact that a PBA coach has on his team is measured by how willing his players are to bust their asses for him.

It seems like cliché, but after talent, desire is really the biggest key for winning basketball, and it’s up to the coaches to get the best out of their players. It comes in a myriad ways; Robert Jaworski and Yeng Guiao use an odd mix of humor and verbal abuse to motivate their players, Chot Reyes has all kinds of gimmicks including showing movies like Braveheart, and my favorite Ryan “The Genius” Gregorio charmed his players into winning two All-Filipino championships.

I was thinking about this last night as I watched Ato Agustin’s San Miguel hold off Ginebra and book a date with Talk N Text in the Philippine Cup finals. One thing that stood out was the fact that under the Atom Bomb, these Beermen were really busting their asses.

In previous conferences, especially in All-Filipino tournaments, San Miguel often folded under pressure, and they visibly lacked the toughness needed in the PBA playoffs. In the series against Ginebra, they displayed toughness both physically and mentally. A lot of it has to do with the play of Jay Washington and Alex Cabagnot, two talented young players who have underachieved their whole careers.

I’m not the biggest fan of Jay Washington, but he was very impressive in this series, finally doing some justice to all the talent that he’s been blessed with. It helped that Ginebra really didn’t have the length or athleticism to match up with the 6’6” J-Wash – he was covered for most of the series by the 6’3” Rudy Hatfield and the 6’2” Willie Wilson – but that doesn’t detract from the effort he poured in for the series. I’d be interested to see if he’d still be able to pull this off in the finals, where he’s facing a frontcourt that’s both tough and athletic, or if he’d be reduced to hanging around the perimeter once more.

Actually, the whole team has been playing courageously, refusing to be bullied by the more physical but less talented Ginebra team. Cabagnot, who has been a hero all tournament long for the Beermen, came through once again, and the confidence that he plays with when he takes big shots is indicative of the whole team.

It’s also impressive how San Miguel has been playing smart, apart from playing hard and playing confident. Endgame poise, which used to be a waterloo for this team, is now an asset, and it was on display last night during the play that led to Cabagnot’s game-clinching three-pointer. Agustin had drawn up a play coming off a timeout, but his plans were foiled when Ginebra sprang a zone defense on them. The Beermen calmly ran its zone offense and found Cabagnot for the jumper.

I don’t know if San Miguel can win against Talk N Text. Despite the media hype, they are not nearly as deep as the Tropang Texters, and the top four Beermen – Washington, Cabagnot, Dondon Hontiveros, and Arwind Santos – would need to bring it every night for them to beat TNT in the finals.

But it’s still remarkable how much the Beermen have been transformed. When it comes to X’s and O’s, Agustin hasn’t done anything special. In fact, he’s actually simplified the team’s offense. But the team he’s coaching is playing hard, and playing smart, and playing with courage.

I don’t know how much credit Agustin deserves for the transformation. Maybe he’s just really lucky. Or maybe he made his own luck, like he did with San Sebastian. With the way his coaching career has gone, would you be surprised if he gets lucky one more time against Talk N Text?