BAHIA BLANCA (2015 FIBA Americas U16 Championship) - The 2015 FIBA Americas U16 Championship tips off on Wednesday in Bahia Blanca, Argentina in what promises to be an exciting youth competition.

Defending champions USA look poised to repeat with an impressive front-court that features five players over 2.07m tall. Their coach Don Showalter, has been at the helm for the team's undefeated run through the first three editions of the U16 championship dating back to 2009.

"We have a very versatile group at a lot of positions, guys who can play a lot of positions," Showalter said.

"I think this could be maybe the best defensive team we've had at the 16-and-under level, from a quickness standpoint, from being able to put ball pressure on, to rebounding."

The USA head up a packed Group A along with Brazil, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.

Brazil is one of the teams to watch in this competition, as they won last year's South American U15 Championship. The squad went undefeated led by a great performance from their point guard, Yago Dos Santos, who averaged over 14 points per game while leading the team in assists in the tournament.

"This will be a great tournament. Our team is much more improved from our experience last year at the South American Championship," said Brazil head coach Cristiano Gramma.

"We are technically sound and have a tall enough roster to be a presence in the paint. Our goal is to make it to our first-ever FIBA U17 World Championship and we believe we have the tools to achieve it."

Group B will be made up of Argentina, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. 

Mexico comes to this tournament as the Centrobasket U15 champion, having pulled off a big upset last year by defeating Puerto Rico in a thriller of a final game in Panama City. Both Salvador Martinez and Alexis Martinez are back with the team after scoring 25 big points on the gold medal date in the Centrobasket.

The friendlies and warm-up games in Bahia Blanca have made Canada a contender with a very athletic and complete roster capable of a consistency and defensive pressure that makes them hard to deal with. 

"Our goal is to continue to progress and play better every day," said Canada head coach Dave DeAveiro.

"We have some long-term goals in terms of winning a medal and getting on the podium, but for us the most important thing is to develop. This is the first step of these players towards their dream of someday making it to the national team.

"We've really focused on sharing the ball, taking good shoots and handling other teams' pressure. If we are able to do that we’ll go back home happy that we played our best basketball."

Argentina hosts this tournament with a similar kind of outlook.

For head coach Carlos Duro, it is all about potential and giving these kinds an opportunity to develop on the international stage at this young age. 

"We've gone taller. We have three players over 6ft 7in [2.01m], which we give special attention to at this juncture, thinking about the future of our national team.

"Thinking about our next 10 years, we cannot say we don't have tall players. We need to find them, develop them and teach them the right way to play. This team is happy to play home and I hope we can take advantage of it."

The eight-team event will be played at the Osvaldo Casanova arena over the course of five days (10-14 June) with every game broadcast live and free on FIBA's Youtube channel. 

The top four teams at the 2015 FIBA Americas U16 Championship will qualify for the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship. 

Click here for the most complete coverage of the competition.

FIBA