SAN JUAN (FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017) - It should not be a surprise that Leandro Allende and Jorge Pacheco are co-captains for Puerto Rico at FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017. The duo have been battling together for their country every summer since 2012.

Allende will be playing his eighth international tournament when the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 tips off on 1 July, with the final on 9 July. And it will be the sixth time the Rio Piedras native is going at it alongside Pacheco, who hails from Ponce. And it was only natural that Puerto Rico head coach Omar Gonzalez made them co-captains.

Allende and Pacheco got Puerto Rico qualified for their first ever FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2014 by going through the Centrobasket U15 Championship 2012 and FIBA U16 Americas Championship 2013. They then teamed up to advance through the Centrobasket U17 Championship 2015 and helped Puerto Rico reach the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup for the first time since 2009 by finishing fourth at FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016.

This was actually Allende's second go-around trying to get to the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup as he finished second at Centrobasket U17 Championship 2013 but then missed out on the world stage by placing fifth at FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2014.

This will also be the second trip to a global event for Gerardo Texeira and Jesus Cruz as both were on Puerto Rico's team at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2014, where the team finished in fifth place.

The team in Cairo will be very familiar with itself as six players appeared at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship 2016 and seven of the current roster were on the team at Centrobasket U17 Championship 2015. That being said, Puerto Rico will be missing a major part of their team from the last two summers as Christian Negron - the leading scorer and rebounder on the U17 and U18 squads - was unable to rehab in time from a torn ACL and will miss Cairo 2017.

That group unity will be called into play as three players - Luis Cuascut, Brandon Davis and Nicholas Guadarrama - will be making their national team debuts. The point guard Davis, for his part, is one of five Puerto Ricans who played last season in the United States along with Allende, Cruz, Guadarrama and Pacheco.

Gonzalez's team may be a strong unit from playing together for some time. But the squad will not be big in size as four players top out at 6ft 7in (2.00m).

Puerto Rico are drawn into Group B with hosts Egypt, Germany and Lithuania.

FIBA