Louisville coach Rick Pitino will coach the Puerto Rican National Team this summer in the Pan American Games in Toronto in late July and also at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Monterrey, Mexico which runs Aug. 25 to Sept. 5.
The top two teams from that event will qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Jeff Greer of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Louisville will play two games against Puerto Rico’s National Team and two or three against its junior team in the Bahamas, with Pitino coaching the Puerto Rican teams. Because of this arrangement, Louisville won’t travel to Spain in August
“The obvious thing is it has to fit my schedule with the University of Louisville,” Pitino said, according to Greer. “It’s a significant thing for me personally.”
More from Greer:
Pitino will travel to Puerto Rico in late June and start training camp for the national team on July 1. The Puerto Rican team will also have a training session in Louisville in early August.
Louisville assistant coach Mike Balado, who is fluent in Spanish, will help Pitino coach the team, plus two to-be-named assistants from Puerto Rico.
“I already have my Rosetta Stone hooked up again,” Pitino joked. “There are barriers to every situation … Basketball is a universal language.”
