SANTA CRUZ (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) — The format for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers has been the showcase for many national teams to evaluate new talents —and Puerto Rico have not been the exception.

The Boricua squad began the 2017-2020 cycle with new faces in the most recent edition of the FIBA AmeriCup and, although they did not manage to move on to the Final Four of the continental tournament, the Caribbean team left a good impression regarding their immediate future.

However, the expectations were not as good before this month's Qualifiers, since the Puerto Rican five suffered the loss of David Huertas, Mike Rosario and Ángel Vassallo, who left to attend their commitments in Mexico and United States.

The absence from the group of these three veterans opened the door for new figures that are giving their first steps in the Puerto Rico team and now they are demonstrating to the coaching staff and their demanding followers that there is sufficient material to go for the ticket to the FIBA Basketball World Cup China 2019.

“The mentality is that we're building something for the future, and that starts outside the court more than inside the court,” Gary Browne (PUR)Gary Browne (PUR)

Browne led the attack by the islanders in their convincing victory against Mexico, 100-80, with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals in his first game with the National Team since his official debut in the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games.

Puerto Rico’s execution was noteworthy because the team is spearheaded by players that are giving their first steps as headliners in the National Team, such as are the cases of point guard Ángel Rodríguez and shooting guard Gian Clavell. At their side there are young veterans —perhaps whose names are not as renowned— such as Jorge Bryan Díaz, Ramón Clemente, Devon Collier, and Ricardo Sánchez, who round-up the squad in their goal to returning to a Basketball World Cup.

“These are things that we have been trying to do for the last year. Maybe we don't have players with well-known games as much as many players that know how to play together and do the little things,” said, for his part, Eddie Casiano, the Puerto Rican squad’s coach.

Casiano, who has been at the head of the Puerto Rican National Team since the summer of 2016, has been emphatic in that the collective game is essential for the team’s aspirations of triumph.

The effect of that collective game could be witnessed in the victory against Mexico, a rival that has dominated Puerto Rico since 2013, but was not a grave challenge to a driven Caribbean side.

“This is not a philosophy that I put in place; this is something that the teams that are first in the world do. There are players from all over the world that make 20 points per game in their teams and then, when they play FIBA, they make eight; it’s a collective game and that's the message I'm trying to bring,” Eddie Casiano (PUR)Eddie Casiano (PUR)

The Boricua squad, with two consecutive victories in the Qualifiers, will try to keep up their rhythm when they face United States on Monday, in Santa Cruz, California.

In their first Qualifying duel, the United States took the front door out, 85-78, but had to struggle against a Puerto Rican team that was dreaming with the victory.

FIBA