Cisco and Beno to Play for National Teams
August 26, 2009 by Troy Hanson
In the coming weeks, Kings players Francisco Garcia and Beno Udrih are scheduled to play for their respective nations in a pair of international tournaments.
Cisco leads what many consider to be the best Dominican Republic team ever in the 2009 FIBA Tournament of the Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 10-team tournament opens today with pool play and concludes on September 6 with the championship contest. Francisco has been training with the DR national team for the past few weeks and is primed and ready to join forces with Charlie Villanueva (Detroit Pistons) and Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) on the Domincan squad as they try to qualify for the 2010 World Championships.
The Domincan Republic is in the very tough Group B Pool, which also includes Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama. The top four teams from both of the two opening round groups will qualify for the quarterfinals. The DR begins the tourney today against Brazil. Stay tuned to Kings.com for updates on the tournament.
The top four teams will qualify for the 2010 World Championships. The U.S. is not competing in this year’s FIBA Tournament of the Americas after earning an automatic qualification into next year’s Worlds with its win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Beno is currently training with the Slovenian National Team as it prepares for the 2009 European Championships in Poland. Preliminary round action opens on September 7. Slovenia is in Group C with Spain, Serbia and Great Britain, and will open against GB on the 7th.
The Slovenian roster includes three other players with NBA experience, Primoz Brezec, Bostjan Nachbar and Goran Dragic. Also joining Beno on the roster is his brother, Samo Udrih, a 6-5 shooting guard.
The top six teams from the European Championships will qualify for the 2010 World Championships.
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Goodluck you two!!!!!!!!