PUR - Cintron announces Puerto Rico's preliminary squad
SAN JUAN (2009 FIBA Americas Championship) - All eyes in Puerto Rico have been on their youngsters at the FIBA U19 World Championship in New Zealand the past two weeks but the attention is now shifting to the senior team with the country hosting the FIBA Americas Championship later this summer. Puerto Rico, who narrowly missed out on a place at the ...
SAN JUAN (2009 FIBA Americas Championship) - All eyes in Puerto Rico have been on their youngsters at the FIBA U19 World Championship in New Zealand the past two weeks but the attention is now shifting to the senior team with the country hosting the FIBA Americas Championship later this summer.
Puerto Rico, who narrowly missed out on a place at the Beijing Games when falling to Germany at the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, have named the 41 players they will consider for national team duty.
Coach Manolo Cintron will gather his troops on July 13 to start preparing for the Americas Championship, which is a qualifying event for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey.
The Puerto Ricans will take on the Dominican Republic in friendly games July 24-26 in Puerto Plata and then return home to face the same national team from August 7-9 at the arena named after the legendary baseball player, the late Roberto Clemente.
Puerto Rico are also scheduled to travel to Mexico to face Argentina, Brazil and the Mexicans from August 13-15.
Cintron's team will then host the Marchand Continental Cup from August 18-20 at the Puerto Rico Coliseum.
Puerto Rico will be in Group B at the FIBA Americas Championship (August 26 to September 6) with Mexico, Uruguay, Canada and the Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico preliminary squad: Carlos Arroyo, José Juan Barea, Miguel Alí Berdiel, Filiberto Rivera, Christian Dalmau, Andrés Rodríguez, Kevin Hamilton, Carlos Rivera, Larry Ayuso, David Huertas, Jesse Pellot-Rosa, Javier Mojica, Rick Apodaca, Mike Rosario, Paul Graham, David Cortés, Guillermo Díaz, James Life Flores, Alejandro Carmona, Ángel Daniel Vassallo, Carmelo Antrone Lee, Ángel "Buster" Figueroa, Sammy Villegas, Joel Jones Camacho, Alex Galindo, Gabriel "Pirulo" Colón, Ángelo Reyes, Ricky Sánchez, Ángel "Piwi" Colón, Nathan Peavy, Manuel De Jesús, Iván López, Ramón Clemente, Carlos "Yao" López, Peter John Ramos, Daniel Santiago, Luis Villafañe, Manuel Narváez, Alphonse Dyer, Luis Colón, Victor Dávila.
FIBA