Cintron's experience should come in handy for Boricuas

SAN JUAN (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Manolo Cintron has had his ups and downs with Puerto Rico's national team. In 2004 at the Athens Olympics, he experienced the high of an opening day upset of the United States. Cintron was an assistant to Julio Toro at the time.

Cintron (PUR) assisted Julio Toro in 2004

He served as an assistant on the Puerto Rico bench from 2001 through 2006. From 2007 through 2010, Cintron was the head coach of the Boricuas.

He captured a Centrobasket title in 2008 but then suffered a painful loss to Germany in the last game of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Athens, a setback which prevented the national team from advancing to the Beijing Games.

After the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Turkey, where Cintron's team did not advance from the Group Phase, he was not retained as coach.

In less than two months, when Puerto Rico play at the OQT in Belgrade, fans will see the familiar face of Cintron on the bench again. Head coach Eddie Casiano, who played on the famous Puerto Rico team in 2004 that beat the USA, has welcomed Cintron back to the fold as an assistant.

For me, it is an honor to return to the national team and to represent my country, something I am thankful to Eddie for. Since I left, they have had four coaches and I hope that with this group, we'll be able to have success. - Cintron

Omar Gonzalez and Rafael 'Chino' Torres will also be assistants. Cintron, who was talking to Primera Hora, expressed the belief that Casiano and the Puerto Rico assistants would immediately jell.

"I believe that we have a group with great chemistry, together with Omar and 'Chino' Torres," Cintron said. "We have worked together before and this unity is going to help us in this job."

The big aim for Puerto Rico this summer is to win the OQT. They must do so if they are going to play an an Olympics for the first time since 2004.

For Cintron, though, there is something else that Puerto Rico must win. They need to prevail in the Centrobasket (19-25 June), a tournament to be held in Panama City, Panama.

When Cintron was the head coach of the Boricuas, they won the Centrobasket not only in 2008 but also 2010. In the last two editions, however, the winners have been the Dominican Republic (2012) and Mexico (2014) with Puerto Rico finishing runners-up on each occasion.

"I am unbeaten at the Central American level and the Caribbean level and I told Eddie that I am not going to lose there. If we are unable to win our own zone, how are we are going to win an OQT? We have to recover hegemony of our zone.'"

Cintron has very clear memories of the OQT that he coached in in Athens. Puerto Rico had an opportunity to reach Beijing but lost two games that would have got them there. They fell first to Greece, and then to Germany.

Cintron (PUR) coached at the 2008 OQT in Greece

That 2008 experience should come in handy this summer, even though the event he coached in had 12 teams and not six.

At the OQT in Belgrade will be Serbia and Angola with Puerto Rico in Group A, and Japan, the Czech Republic and Latvia in Group B. It is a strong tournament in which you need experience, height and to flex your muscles if you want to be successful," Cintron said.

FIBA