Dominican Republic prepares for the FIBA World Cup Americas Qualifiers

MIAMI (United States) - Dominican Republic and head coach Melvyn López, are already starting to get ready for the Americas Qualifiers for the FIBA ​​Basketball World Cup 2023, which begins November 26 -29. In recent weeks the coach has been monitoring the players who are abroad and those who were in the recently completed domestic league.

“In the Dominican Republic we live and breathe basketball and there are always great expectations with the national team,” Lopez said. “We are looking forward to competing hard and showing how good of a team we are. We have been holding numerous work sessions with our coaching staff and with the management of the national team. There is ongoing communication with our players to have the best possible team for this first qualifying challenge.”

The city of Santo Domingo, the country's capital, will host Group C in the initial window of the Qualifiers. There the Dominicans will meet the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"They are a very dangerous opponent. They always fight and have a very experienced staff," said the coach about his first opponent. He also looked at the other teams that make up Group C, the Bahamas and Canada.

“Every opponent we have in this group is very talented. We understand their capabilities, the great ability they each possess, and their individual skills. Bahamas is always a surprise; you never know what to expect from them. They have a lot of players based in the United States and when they put them together, they can be a real challenge. The Canadian team always presents experienced and well-coached players. In short, the group is very competitive, which means we have to play our best every time we step on the court.”

López had been linked to the head coaching job of the Dominican Republic for several years. In fact, he directed a good part of the games of the past Qualifiers to the FIBA ​​World Cup held in 2019 in China, serving as an assistant coach where the Dominican Republic finished in 16th place. He later took the reins of the national team in the FIBA ​​AmeriCup Qualifiers and continued to lead them in the Tokyo Olympic Games Qualifiers, a tournament in which the team again performed well, reaching the semi-finals.

"Obviously our main goal is to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, but we also have other goals in the short and long term. One of them is to stay in America's basketball elite and continue to advance in the FIBA ​​World Ranking. The dream of going to the Olympic games always crosses our minds, so we work so that at some point we can fulfill it.”

These successes are partly due to the development programs that have been organized and ran in the country in recent years. These results give further reason why they must continue to be given the support needed to grow the game.

“The Dominican federation has strengthened their contribution and support with the National Teams Program for Training Categories, which has already contributed several players to the senior team. The training of national coaches has also been supported through the Dominican College of Basketball Coaches (Codebal) and athletes with national and international scholarships participating in FIBA ​​and NBA camps, as well as domestic and international tournaments.”

FIBA