BUENOS AIRES (Argentina) - Of all the ingredients that gives a team its best chance of challenging for honors in international basketball, continuity at the helm is among the most important.

With Argentina having reached the Final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China, it was viewed as a must in the country to keep Sergio Hernandez as coach for next year's Olympics and the Argentina Basketball Confederation has managed to do just that.

It will be his third Olympics as head coach, with Hernandez having held the reins four years ago at the Rio de Janeiro Games and eight years before that at the Beijing Games, where he steered the team to a bronze medal.

Argentina had numerous injuries at the Beijing Olympics but Hernandez steered the team to a bronze medal 

"It gives me a lot of happiness and peace of mind having agreed to continue until Tokyo 2021," said Hernandez, 56. "It was something that I was looking forward to happening and now that it is official, I can say it with great joy."

Hernandez has been keeping in touch with the players that did so well last year at the World Cup. The team was supposed to compete this year but the coronavirus pandemic forced the Tokyo Olympics to be pushed back a year.

"The idea remains the same, to prepare in Argentina and then go find competition from the highest level outside the country," Hernandez said. "Trying to make the preparation good enough without wearing out the team too much is what we always seek to do."

Hernandez took the helm of Argentina at the FIBA AmeriCup 2005 in Santo Domingo, where the team finished runners-up to Brazil, and one year later guided the team to a fourth-place finish at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Japan.

That Argentina team nearly reached the title game but lost to eventual champions Spain in the Semi-Finals, 75-74.

Hernandez worked as an assistant coach to Julio Lamas at the London Olympics 2012, with Argentina coming in fourth.

FIBA