FORMOSA (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) - Eddie Casiano has been the coach of Puerto Rico's national basketball team for two years now. Since his arrival, he has tried to implement his work discipline and his game mindset, different from the classic Puerto Rican vertigo. The coach is focused on the movement of the ball during the attacks and in the conscious and combined work in the defense.

At this qualifying window for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China next year, Puerto Rico achieved a victory as locals against Panama, and suffered a hard loss against Argentina. Casiano's team is third place in group E. The outcome of the Road to China 2019 will be determined after they face Uruguay twice (as visitors and locals), travel to Panama, and welcome the Argentines. At this point of the road, we talked to Casiano.

What is your analysis of this qualifying window?
We did what we had to do, which was winning in our court. The odyssey of traveling to Formosa was debilitating and took a little from our team. It was a difficult match against Argentina; they're rivals that know how to play, that do things right. We must change the culture of how we play; we must stop keeping the ball in the hand and start passing it on time, (we must) play with passes and move with purpose. That’s what I'm trying to achieve but it's gotten a bit complicated. We’ll keep trying and looking for a way to compete against teams like Argentina, Brazil or the Europeans who are world powerhouses.

How will you implement the main modifications that you are looking for in how the team plays the game?
One of the problems I have is the way we play in Puerto Rico: one pass, one shot or two passes, one shot. Besides, the defense doesn’t rotate more than two or three times and we must find the way to change that. Little by little the players must understand that you must study the sport. I have a saying that goes: “you have to study even if it is for being a crook.” You must study the game, you must understand why the ball must move fast, how you must attack, the work discipline. The way the games are played at BSN doesn’t help us improve because each team has four games a week and that creates a lot of bad habits that you don’t have time to correct at practice. To change that you must start from below, and I'm not going to be able to do that from one day to another. It's a process that requires time, but we're taking the necessary steps. Maybe in the four years I'm here I can’t achieve that 100%, but it may be the start of something that someone else can finish in the future.

You have said that you insist on the defense of those you coach, but that is something that you were not known for as a player. How do you work on that issue?
When I played, I couldn’t glide well. In fact, I retired because I constantly was injuring my legs. I had no speed to move in the defense and it cost me a lot to take fast players, although I did have the intelligence to know where to be. Also, I had the advantage of having José Ortiz, Ramón Rivas and Jerome Mincy behind, which are three of the best big men in the history of Puerto Rico. Now, we don't have these types of players and we need the five of them to do a good team defense. The fact that I did it right or wrong doesn’t mean that I didn’t learn it and I don't know why we must do it. My experience tells me that to win or lose against the great teams, you must defend. We must understand the rotations and comprehend the scouting process. For example, Deck isn't a player that throws well from a distance. However, we responded like if he were Larry Bird and he then attacked directly towards the basket, and that caused us a lot of damage. We must correct many details and you can only do so by practicing.

How will you deal with José Juan Barea’s absence for the coming encounters?
We’ll have to play jointly. We haven't been bad without him although, logically, he's our axis, our leader. This will mean that I'm even more right about the fact that the philosophy that must prevail is that of the team, moving the ball more, understanding how to use the pick and roll to our advantage. Everyone must understand their role and know that the points that Barea achieve must be achieved by all. We've done it well before. It's a difficult challenge, but we can do it.

Are you confident that you will get the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 ticket?
I think so. Injuries have affected us, and we were missing some very important players, like Tyler Davis (who’s in Oklahoma), Ramón Rivas (who’s not spectacular, but does the job), John Holland (a necessary shooting guard for us), and Maurice Harkless (a small forward, a position in which we are a bit defective). If we can have those that were absent and don't play in the NBA, we’ll have a very big possibility of not only qualifying, but to do some damage in the World Cup.

How many games of the four that are left do you think that must be won to secure the qualification?
All of them. We must go one by one and win all the games we can. I could say that we could lose a game or so, but that's not my mentality. Every day you must play with the energy and the urgency of a final.

Pablo Cormick
FIBA