DOM - It’s there for the taking

SANTO DOMINGO (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The near miss of the London Games still burns for everyone in the Dominican Republic national team program.

A loss to Nigeria in a do-or-die last game at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) was so hard to take that star player Al Horford left the Dominican bench before the end of the contest and walked angrily to the changing room.

A golden opportunity was missed by the Dominicans that day.

There is an air of optimism in the country, though, even with uncertainty about the make-up of this summer's squad that is to compete at the FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas, Venezuela.

Horford is not a nailed-on certainty to take part, for starters.

The country is expected to announce this week that former national team player Orlando Antigua, an assistant to John Calipari the past two summers and also his assistant with the Kentucky Wildcats in American college basketball, is to take the reins.

"I think we have a great opportunity to be in the 2016 Olympics," said Dominican Republic national team manager Eduardo Najri.

"You need a group that creates because we have talent."

Only the top four sides in Caracas this summer will make it to the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"We are not the favorites," Najri said, "but one of strongest teams."

As for the players that will travel to Caracas, Najri said: "The coach is the one who chooses his team, and that's been my philosophy.

"I put as many pieces on the table as I can but in the end, who am I to demand that he choose one or another player?"

At the FIBA Americas Championship, which is to run from 30 August to 11 September, the Dominicans will play in Group B with Mexico, hosts Venezuela, Paraguay and Argentina.

The top four sides will advance to a second group phase and face the top four from Group A that includes Brazil, Puerto Rico, Canada, Jamaica and Uruguay.

FIBA