PUR - Cintron questions Group D foes Croatia's temperament

SAN JUAN (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - Puerto Rico coach Manolo Cintron believes his national team was one of the lucky ones on Thursday at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament draw in Athens.

The Puerto Ricans are in Group D with Croatia and Cameroon, and Cintron said: "I am happy and optimistic that we have a good chance of finishing first in our group.

"Without disrespecting Cameroon, they are a rival we must beat and assure ourselves a place in the quarter-finals. The important game is against Croatia to determine the first spot of the group."

Cintron, whose team won the third place game at the FIBA Americas Championship in Las Vegas against Brazil, is hoping to take Puerto Rico to their second straight Olympic Games.

They played in Athens four years ago and sprung the biggest upset of the tournament by routing Team USA in their opening game.

Three qualifying spots will be up for grabs in Greece.

Cintron, whether he was just speaking from the heart or practicing the art of gamesmanship, had some interesting things to say about Jasmin Repesa's Croatia.

"Croatia are a tall team and their players have a lot of talent," he said.

"(But) They are a young team and badly tempered. There are players that when they are sitting on the bench, they get offended and they start arguing.

"They play hard, but they lost very close games at the EuroBasket (in Spain) and perhaps they lack concentration."

Those words, no doubt, will be read by Repesa and his team.

"For us the key will be to play from day one at a high level and make sure we battle for the boards in order to use our speed to our advantage," Cintron added.

He will have lightning-quick point guard Carlos Arroyo leading the charge, although there are questions about Larry Ayuso following his recent departure from Cibona Zagreb.

Ayuso sent the club a phone text last week saying that he had decided to leave the club.

"In this tournament there are no small rivals and we have to go out and play hard every single game," Cintron said.

"However, it was a good draw as we avoided playing straight away teams like Greece or Germany."

Indeed, Greece were drawn in Group A with Brazil and Lebanon while in Group B, Germany are paired with New Zealand and Cape Verde.

If Puerto Rico finish first or second in Group D, they will play one of the top two sides in Group C which has Canada, Korea and Slovenia.

Puerto Rico will play in a warm-up tournament that includes Germany, Greece and New Zealand on July 4-5 before traveling to Slovenia three days later to play in a tournament (July 8-10) against Croatia and Canada.

They will then have five days of practice before making their debut against Cameroon on July 15th.

FIBA