Martinez looks for Ecuadorian identity en route to South American Championship

GUAYAQUIL (South American Championship) - Ecuador have secured their participation at the 2016 South American Championship and head coach Luciano Martinez has the responsibility of achieving goals that will serve as a stimulus for constant progress.

After settling in Guayaquil two years ago, Martinez began his job as sporting director of an entity that promotes basketball. As a result of that, the Ecuadorian national federation contacted him, with the intention of developing a comprehensive plan for the national teams. Now he will be calling the plays for the national team at the 2016 South American Championship.

We want to create a new structure for Ecuadorian basketball and we want to compete as equals. - Martinez

Ecuador participated in only two of the last seven regional tournaments, which caused a departure from the reality of international basketball.

Martinez is clear about the current Ecuadorian basketball situation and it's why he started his work at the base.

"My first job was to see the athletes who have a commitment to the national team. We included young players, with the height for the international level and the capability of developing their abilities," he said. "We evaluated 25 players, who confirmed their participation for the whole South American Championship process. That’s because Ecuador does not have professional players and they share their time between the sport and their work or studies, and that conditions their possibilities."

Martinez was broader while stating his objectives while at the helm of the Ecuadorian national team.

"We want to create a new structure for Ecuadorian basketball and we want to compete as equals," he explained. "For that, the preparation has to be adequate. The program must meet the high performance, training and competing with basketball powers prior to each official commitment at the international level."

The preparations of the Ecuadorian team are being carried out at a high performance center in Guayaquil and three games against Costa Rica were planned as part of the preparation.

"We will try to be among the best eight of South America. In the previous edition of the South American Championship we didn't get a win," Martinez pointed out. "Our first two rivals are Venezuela and Brazil, who are far from our reality. We have illusions of defeating our direct rivals starting on day three. This, unfortunately, we'll have to be accomplished with only 20 days of practices, because we did not have previous competition at the National League."

There is a strong reality: Ecuador, like other teams in the South American region, have amateur players, who will face professional players.

"It is difficult to work in that context. We need to have short term objectives within each game. The psychological aspect prior to the games will be important to address this notorious inequality. We need to see players with commitment to this idea in the future. And those that don't should not be here," the Argentine coach offered..

Martinez also has already done an assessment of what Ecuador basketball needs in order to grow.

"Ecuador must have an organized internal competition. The current league is not enough to have international pretensions. In addition, a work plan has to be implement for every national team. At the same time, a plan of detection and talent development has to be implemented. We must aim to be among the best five of South America in a couple of years," he said.

FIBA