HERNANDEZ Names Argentina’s Preliminary Squad For Turkey

Argentina coach Sergio HERNANDEZ has named a 16-man preliminary squad for the FIBA World Championship in Turkey.

As expected, the usual suspects from the NBA; Luis SCOLA of Houston, Fabricio OBERTO of Washington and Andres NOCIONI of Sacramento, are all included.

In addition to his Real Madrid starting guard Pablo PRIGIONI, ACB players in the squad include Olympians Paolo QUINTEROS of CAI Zaragoza and Juan GUTIERREZ of CB Granada, as well as Matias SANDES of Ayuda en Accion Fuenlabrada and Hernan JASEN of Asefa Estudiantes.

As mentioned before, Manu GINOBILI will not make the trip as he is currently celebrating the birth of his twin sons. In his absence, DELFINO, QUINTEROS and another Olympian, Penarol’s Leo GUTIERREZ, will be counted on to provide a perimeter threat as they did at crucial times at the Beijing Games.

HERNANDEZ will also take a long look this summer at youngster Juan Manuel FERNANDEZ (dubbed by US College Sports Media as Basket MESSI), a point guard, helped Temple University reach the NCAA Tournament this season.

The squad will begin their preparation on July 26th in the city of Salta and will compete in a tournament with Brazil, Puerto Rico and Uruguay on August 2nd and 3rd . On August 4th , the team will go to Buenos Aires to face Brazil and nine days later, the team will travel to Spain and face the Brazilians and Spaniards in a tournament in Logrono.

On August 21st and 23rd , Argentina will move on to Ankara, Turkey, to Ankara to play against Turkey, Lebanon and Canada in their final warm-up games before travelling to Kayseri for the Preliminary Round.

Argentina preliminary squad: Pablo PRIGIONI (Real Madrid), Juan Manuel FERNANDEZ (Temple), Juan Pablo FIGUEROA (Atenas de Cordoba), Juan Pablo CANTERO Atenas de Cordoba), Paolo QUINTEROS (CAI Zaragoza), Carlos DELFINO (Milwaukee Bucks), Andres NOCIONI (Sacramento Kings), Matias SANDES (Ayuda en Accion Fuenlabrada), Hernan JASEN (Asefa Estudiantes), Federico KAMMERICHS (Regatas Corrientes), Marcos MATA (Penarol de Mar del Plata), Luis SCOLA (Houston Rockets), Leonardo GUTIERREZ (Penarol), Fabricio OBERTO (Washington Wizards), Roman GONZALEZ (Quimsa), Juan Pedro GUTIERREZ (CB Granada).