BUENOS AIRES (Olympics) - Argentina coach Julio Lamas is extremely happy to be reunited with Sergio Hernandez again.

Lamas was an assistant to Hernandez when he led the national side and now the latter has agreed to join the technical staff when the FIBA Americas Championship winners compete at the London Games.

His return to the coaching brain trust was confirmed last week.

"Sergio can bring his knowledge of the Europeans," Lamas said.

"His opinion at the time of planning our play will be valuable.

"When I was his assistant in Beijing, I was there for what was needed.

"I am a lover of team work."

Hernandez has a lot of experience at the helm.

He replaced Ruben Magnano as coach after the 2004 Olympics, when Argentina won gold, and helped keep the national team among the leading sides in the world.

In Beijing, Argentina captured a bronze medal.

An important member of that team, Fabricio Oberto, came out of retirement to play at the FIBA Americas Championship and is hoping to compete at the Olympics.

He is not under contract with a club, however, and only recently began training with Atenas de Cordoba for a couple of times per week.

Training with no games seems unlikely to be enough for Oberto to be included in the Olympic squad.

Lamas announced last week that Manu Ginobili, Leo Gutierrez, Carlos Delfino, Andres Nocioni, Hernan Jasen, Juan Gutierrez, Pablo Prigioni and Luis Scola were confirmed players in the preliminary squad for London.

"Only players that are competing are able to be selected," Lamas said.

The rest of the finalists for the team will be named later.

"I will not give more names to the eight players that I already called,” Lamas said.

“Everyone is under observation, especially guards and centers."

As for the NBA finishing later this year due to the lockout, Lamas isn't worried.

"Scola (Houston Rockets) does not suffer from playing much or continuously," Lamas said.

"Delfino (Milwaukee Bucks) is young and Nocioni (Philadelphia 76ers) will not have problems even though he is not playing much."

FIBA