By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
THE path toward Olympic qualification in 2016 begins this month for the Bahamas Basketball Federation with one of the top events in the region.
Team Bahamas will be one of 10 countries taking part in the 2012 Centrobasket Tournament for Men in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 18-24.
The Bahamas was drawn into group A along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and Nicaragua. Group B includes Jamaica, Costa Rica, Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Dominican Republic.
The Centrobasket tournament is organised by FIBA through FIBA Americas with participating national teams of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
The Bahamas will open competition against Cuba at 3:30pm on June 18.
On June 19, they are scheduled to face Puerto Rico in the feature game at 8:30pm, Panama on the 20th at 3:30pm and Nicaragua on the 22nd at 1:30pm.
Semifinal rounds take place on June 23 and the final, along with the third place game, takes place on June 24.
Initially, the tournament was played in odd years - every two years - with some exceptions, like the editions of 1981 and 1985 that were performed with an interval of four years because the 1979 and 1983 tournaments were not played.
In 2003 and 2004, the tournament was held in consecutive years but, after this, the original format of a tournament every two years returned, which is now staged in even years.
The 2012 Centrobasket qualifies four teams for the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship.
"We think that we have improved from where we were in terms of talent. We are quicker, which should make us a better defensive team. We made a few changes and have added some talented players," said assistant coach Mario Bowleg.
"We are putting things together, the federation really wants to ensure that we advance to the Tournament of the Americas which we feel we can. We think we have the talent to do so. That would lead to the 2013 FIBA World Games and once you play in that you automatically qualify for the 2016 Olympics."
Puerto Rico hosted the Centrobasket Championship last in 1993 and won the gold medal.
The Puerto Ricans are in first place in the medal box score with 10 gold medals (21 medals in total), followed by Cuba, who has four gold medals (13 in total).
The latest edition of the Championship was held in Santo Domingo in 2010, in which Puerto Rico defeated Dominican Republic 89-80 in the final match.
The top 4 of Centrobasket qualify for the Pre-World Basketball 2013. The Pre-World 2013 is a qualifier for the 2014 World Cup that is set to take place in Spain.
While the final roster for Team Bahamas has not been released, several players have been added to the pool which competed at the CBC Championships, including Bennet Davis, Tehran Cox, Marvin Grey and others.
The 2012 Centrobasket will not be devoid of starpower.
Puerto Rico is No.16 worldwide on the FIBA rankings and includes NBA talents JJ Barea of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Carlos Arroyo, Peter John Ramos, Renaldo Balkman and Daniel Santiago.
The Dominican Republic is ranked No. 25 led by Atlanta Hawks All-Star Al Horford, Charlie Villanueva of the Detroit Pistons and Francisco Garcia of the Sacramento Kings.
Jamaica is unranked but boasts several NBA talents despite the loss of Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert, who requested a release so he can try out for the US national team.
Jamaica will be led by Samardo Samuels of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Robert Reid of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Jerome Jordan of the New York Knicks and Patrick Ewing Jr.
The Dominican Republic will also be coached by University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who led the NCAA's winningest programme to its eighth national championship back in April.
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