SANTO DOMINGO (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019) - Dominican Republic began a new process with its national team, and the bronze medal they achieved in the 2016 edition of Centrobasket evidenced that this new path was well oriented. Their satisfactory performance and the inclusion of new names created a sense of hopeful anticipation.

Therefore, this year —packed with international high-performance events for the teams of the American continents— is an excellent opportunity for the Dominicans to keep paving the way throughout demanding challenges.

The man responsible for steering this project is coach Melvyn López, who agrees and is excited about the challenge. He admits that the new FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifying System is an excellent way to strengthen his team’s development.

“It's groundbreaking and different to what we have experienced in the last 30 or 40 years. It will be challenging at first, but it's positive that players will have the mechanisms to represent their countries even if they play in other leagues. It's positive that there will be more teams playing in the World Cup. Another important fact is that we will have the opportunity to see our players active at home more frequently; and for the players, the fact of playing more at an international level will help them in their development", said López.

Dominican Republic was picked for Group D in the Americas Qualifiers, alongside Canada, Virgin Islands and Bahamas. “It's a good group in which we will face two teams that we regularly see in our region’s tournaments; as well as Canada, which has always been a strong rival of ours. We have to be fully committed to achieve the objective of passing on to the next round", added López, who is also coach in the Dominican Republic’s minor leagues.

Before the beginning of America’s Qualifiers, the Dominican Republic National Team will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay, to participate in the FIBA AmeriCup 2017.

“The AmeriCup will be the opportunity to compete against the best national teams of the continent, and it's a good stage to see how our basketball level measures up. For this event, we intent to give some continuance to the project we began last year at Centrobasket: structuring a young squad with some veterans and always thinking about calling the best players available during such date”, explained López.

The DR will face United States, Panama and Uruguay in the AmeriCup Group Phase, and they need to achieve the group's first place to ensure they qualify for the semi-finals of the continental competition.

“It's true that this group is quite demanding, but that will be very useful for us. It will allow us to witness a Panama National Team that is in the process of rebuilding. Uruguay will also be there, and they always build good teams; as well as United States, a team that we have not defeated in an official game since 1989. In any case, we are confident that we will give it all in this event”, López concluded.

FIBA