SAN JUAN (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - For more than a decade, Eddie Casiano wore the Puerto Rico jersey with pride. He played in the biggest of tournaments for the Boricuas, including Olympics.

Now, according to the nation's media, the 43-year-old is going to have an opportunity to lead the national team. Hopefully for the fans of the sport on the Caribbean island, he will steer the side into the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Fellow Boricuas Nelson Colon, an assistant on Rick Pitino's staff at last year's FIBA Americas Championship, and David Rosario, the ex-Panama coach, were also candidates for the Puerto Rico head coach position.

Casiano is currently at the helm of Cangrejeros de Santurce. He will make his debut as national team boss in June when it competes in the Centrobasket (19-25 June), an event that will serve as a warm-up for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Belgrade.

At the OQT, which runs from 4-9 July, Puerto Rico will be in Group A with Angola and Serbia. In Group B will be the Czech Republic, Japan and Latvia. Only the winner of the OQT will progress to the Rio de Janeiro Games.

While Rosario was at the helm of Panama at the 2015 continental championship in Mexico City and Colon was helping Pitino coach the Boricuas, Casiano was a spectator. He had initially been put in charge of Mexico's national team but the tournament hosts took an about-turn and re-appointed Sergio Valdeolmillos.

A Spaniard, Valdeolmillos had coached Mexico in several tournaments. The country had enjoyed its biggest success under him, winning the FIBA Americas Championship for the first time in 2013, in Caracas, Venezuela. Valdeolmillos then led the team into the Round of 16 at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

The Boricuas, who had lost 91-89 to Mexico in the Final of the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship, also played at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup but did not advance from the Group Phase. Spaniard Paco Olmos coached the team at those two events.

Casiano knows what it's like to compete at the highest level of international basketball because he experienced it himself. He played at the 1992 and the 2004 Olympics and also at the 1994 and 1998 FIBA Basketball World Cups.

He liked the big stage, too. One of his biggest performances in the Puerto Rico shirt came on the opening day of the men's tournament at the Athens Olympics when he connected on all four of his attempts from three-point range on his way to 18 points in a surprise 92-73 demolition of the star-laden United States.

Twelve years earlier, the New York-born Casiano was only 19 when he faced the USA in the Quarter-Finals of the Barcelona Games. He had 13 points in 12 minutes of that contest but the 'Dream Team' won, 115-77.

Puerto Rico will be one the underdogs at the OQT with hosts Serbia the prohibitive favorites to win the six-team event. Last year, under Pitino, the Puerto Ricans endured a slow start but finished strong and took the last spot on offer at the FIBA Americas Championship for the OQT with a fifth-place finish, which they secured with an 80-69 triumph over Uruguay.

Had Puerto Rico's federation wanted continuity at the helm, they would have opted for Colon, a coach that got a ringing endorsement from Pitino.

The first aim for Casiano will be to steer Puerto Rico to a top-two finish in Group A at the OQT and if successful, the team would play in a Semi-Final against one of the Group B sides. The Semi-Final winners will meet and the team the prevails in that game will clinch a spot in the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Casiano, to be unveiled later on Wednesday in a press conference in San Juan, is to be assisted this summer by ex-Puerto Rico coach Manolo Cintron and one of his former assistants, Omar Gonzalez.

FIBA