Balling at the beach - Centrobasket 2008 in Cancun

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - The Centrobasket (Hosted by Mexico) is going to start in a few days, and we are taking a quick look on who might suit up for the participating nations.

The tournament is going to be played in Cancun and Chetumal (In the state of Quintana Roo which is well known for having the most beautiful beaches in the world!) and serves as a qualifier for the Tournament of the Americas, therefore a lot of prominent players from Central America confirmed their participation for the nightlife and maybe the tournament itself.

Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks and Francsico Garcia of the Sacramento Kings will be strengthened the squad of the Dominican Republic which is really boosting the chances for their qualification.
Add Luis Flores and Jack Michael Martinez and naturalized American center Larry Turner to them and you are having a strong team on the paper (I forgot to mention veteran Felipe Lopez who is also in the mix)...but will they be productive as they always have been hampered by lousy coaching and pressured by the high expectations.

Mexico is going to have homecourt-advantage and they got their best in Romel Beck (Who signed to play for Zadar in Croatia) and guard Anthony Lever-Pedroza as well as veteran Horacio Llamas and are currently playing a series of games against local pro-teams in their ongoing preparations. Lorenzo Mata-Real is going to switch sides after his new team's (Veracruz) series against the national-team and is finally representing the country of his parents.

Chris Hernandez is already suiting up the red-green-white jersey and should be a lock on the PG-position which he is going to share with Omar Quintero. Hector Hernandez is playing on the forward-spot while center Ramses Benitez is filling up the paint. All in all, a pretty strong team that is again missing Eduardo Najera and Earl Watson who won't represent the countries' colors unless the president of the federation steps down.

Puerto Rico is going to have the services of Carlos Arroyo who signed a great-deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.
Other players include Filiberto Rivera who signed in Germany (Bamberg) again while Larry Ayuso (A virus could prevent his participation) could be also on the team that played recently in Athens in the Olympic qualifiers.
Ricky Sanchez and Daniel Santiago won't be in Cancun but the team has always been known to be a contender for the title and with the help of J.J. Barea, Joel Jones and maybe P.J. Ramos (Another doubtful), they should be set for making it to the TOA.

No news so far regarding the Virgin Islands and if Raja Bell will be suiting up again, but I doubt he will be available. At least there is no news about it to find, so I guess he won't be part of the team. The same goes for David Vanterpool, who retired to be an assistant coach in Moscow.
Guard Carl Krauser could be joining them like he did in the past, and Spain-bound Cuthbert Victor and Puerto Rico-based Ja Ja Richards, Jameel Heywood and Kevin Sheppard are regular fixtures on the roster.

Panama is re-building but are still relying on the services of well-known Jaime Lloreda (Signed to play for Roseto in Italy), who spent some time this year near Cancun to play for Playa del Carmen. Veteran Jair Peralta is going to play the point, and brings tons of experience to the team by playing all over Latin America. Young layers such as J.R. Pinnock and Gary Forbes would have been a great addition to the team but due to their unknown contract situation (Both players did not sign for club- teams yet), they passed probably to play.

El Salvador is fielding their strongest team available but may lack the talent and height to succeed in such a tough group.

Cuba is always having the moment of surprise on their side as they don't compete a lot in international play these days.Allens Jemmott (Scoring champ in Cuba),Michael Guerra, Geoffrey Silvestre and Henry Simon are all fixtures on a well-rounded team that implemented some younger players as well.

Costa Rica is probably having the services of Franklyn Ferguson, Henry Martinez, Jefny Anderson and Hernol Hall (Now in Mexico playing in the LNBP pre-season) that all have the experience of playing abroad.

With all that talent displayed on Mexico's Caribbean coast, who really wants to spend the day on the beach and miss this interesting tournament? Tough question to answer I guess…

I'm out like my sun tan