Uruguay fired up about hosting FIBA AmeriCup in 2017

MONTEVIDEO (FIBA AmeriCup 2017) - It's not an overstatement to describe 2017 as one of the most important years in Uruguayan basketball history.

The country will be a host nation for the FIBA AmeriCup, and the national team will also launch its FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 American Qualifiers campaign.

It's a hugely important time for the sport in Uruguay.

Basketball will be front and center. In the FIBA AmeriCup, Uruguay will take on the Dominican Republic, Panama and the United States in Group C.

Group A games will be in Medellin, Colombia, and Group B will be staged in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

Uruguay are No. 27 in the NIKE FIBA World Ranking, behind eight teams in the Americas. They are determined to raise eyebrows this year, though.

"We are not going to play it (FIBA AmeriCup) to make up the numbers," Uruguay coach Franco Signorelli said. "We are going to go out to win every game in order to reach the final four."

I take it as a big responsibility because it's a national team tournament and it's in our countryUkraine's Luciano Parodi

Uruguay will face the Dominicans on 28 August and the USA the following day and then Panama, a team that won the countries' last battle in 2015 at the FIBA AmeriCup in Mexico City.

"It (Group C) is a complicated group in a very important tournament that we will be able to have it here in our country," Signorelli said.

Even if Uruguay do not realize their aim of reaching the knockout phase of the FIBA AmeriCup in Cordoba, Argentina, the experience will be good as it will help the team in its preparations for the World Cup Qualifiers.

Uruguay will open their World Cup Qualifiers Group A campaign against Panama on 23 November and then play at Paraguay three days later. Argentina are also in their group.

"It's good for us to have international competition (in the FIBA AmeriCup)," Signorelli said to basquetcaliente.com, "because we use it as preparation for the Qualifiers."

Bruno Fitipaldi, the Uruguay captain, is excited about the prospects. Fitipaldi played for Galatasaray this season in the very tough Turkish league.

"Right now, the aim is to have the best preparation possible," he said. "Later on we will have the AmeriCup and study the other teams, seeing that we are ready, what team we will have."

Another in the Uruguay national team that will figure prominently in the FIBA AmeriCup and the World Cup Qualifiers is Luciano Parodi, a player that has recently signed for Bahia Basket in Argentina.

"I take it as a big responsibility because it's a national team tournament and it's in our country," he said. "It just so happens that very strong national teams are coming and that the level is going to be demanding."

FIBA