The San Miguel Beermen’s Leo Austria and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Tim Cone are the favorites for the 2019 Virgilio ‘Baby’ Dalupan Coach of the Year Award, which was supposed to be given out during the PBA Press Corps Annual Awards Night but the event, originally scheduled to take place last Monday, was postponed due to ongoing concerns surrounding the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19.
Austria steered the Beermen to a record fifth-straight Philippine Cup, then added the Commissioner’s Cup to last year’s tally; however, Cone halted San Miguel’s grand slam hopes after Barangay Ginebra won the Governors’ Cup.
In addition to the PBA, Cone also coached the Philippine men’s national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas, to a gold medal at last year’s Southeast Asian Games.h the former winning in 1994, 1996, and 2014; while the latter won three straight from 2015 to 2017./ASC, WDJ
Both Cone and Austria have Coach of the Year three times each wit