PUR - Hard work needed to improve ranking

SAN JUAN (FIBA Rankings) – Alarm bells are not ringing for Puerto Rico, who dropped a few spots in the latest FIBA Rankings to 19th.

The national team that is led by coach Flor Melendez finished fourth at last year’s FIBA Americas Championship and then lost in the Quarter-Finals of the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament to Lithuania.

While the rankings do not have any bearing on whether the team qualifies for next year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, they do show that Puerto Rico have fallen just a little in prestige stakes of international hoops.

It is not something that Melendez is fretting about, though.

"The FIBA ranking is not something I can control,” he said.

“It's something you know, but talking about it does not solve anything.

“What solves something is to get to work so we can go back up.”

While Melendez doesn’t have his players together to work on things in training, there are things that he and others who care deeply about Puerto Rican basketball can focus on to make sure the senior national team remains a force in the international game.

"Several weeks ago, I submitted my report on the national team to the basketball federation with my recommendations for the immediate future and the long-term future to keep improving our international performance,” he said.

“What we need now is to outline these plans together."

Something that Puerto Rico must continue to do is to develop new talent, or find it.

Some of those promising players are in the American university system.

“You have to follow up and work with native talent,” Melendez said.

“But we also have to work with those who are more ready to help in the renovation now, as are Matt Lopez, Kevin Young and Devon Collier, to name a few.

"It’s necessary that this year, we travel to see them, to be with them.

“That is not something where we invite them every summer and then forget them.

“Those boys need to feel they are part of our national program and we have to monitor how they are doing at their universities and areas that they need to work on.”

FIBA