Keith Smart, assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, has been entrusted with taking the Dominican men’s basketball team to the Pre World Basketball Championship, scheduled for Santo Domingo from 24 August through 4 September. Smart has been the Warriors’ assistant coach since 2003, after spending three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and brings 18 years of professional basketball experience as both a player and a coach. As reported in El Caribe, he is working with the team at their Los Prados facility. He said that he does not know any of the players and so is putting them through exercises and moves to get to know them better and have a better idea of who should make the 12-man final team. In his opinion, what is most important is organization.
In the Pre World Basketball Championship, the Dominican Republic will play in Group B against Uruguay, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Argentina in the FIBA-Americas Championship scheduled for 24-28 August in Santo Domingo. The Championship Draw was held in Santo Domingo on Monday. Group A will be made up of Panama, US, Venezuela, Brazil and Canada. The teams are opting for the four slots in the World Games scheduled for 2006 in Japan. Argentina’s participation has already been secured. The DR’s Pre-World Championship Games schedule is: August 24: Uruguay vs. DR; August 26: DR vs. Mexico, Aug. 27: Puerto Rico vs. DR; Aug. 28: DR vs. Argentina. The best four teams in each group will go through to the second round of the tournament.
http://www.fibaamericas.com/torneos_us.asp