Rick Pitino to coach Puerto Rico team to help the qualify for Olympics

[salsadancer7]

I was very excited about this because I would love for them to qualify!

Updated: December 20, 2010, 12:12 PM ET

Rick Pitino to coach Puerto Rico

ESPN.com news services

Rick Pitino is taking on another rebuilding project.

The only men's college basketball coach to lead three teams to the Final Four has agreed to coach the Puerto Rico national team next summer in the FIBA Tournament of the Americas with an eye toward qualifying for the 2012 Olympics.

"It's a tall order and that's why I'm taking it," the Louisville coach said Monday. "If they were already in [the Olympics], I wouldn't do it. Their backs are to the wall."

Puerto Rico must finish in the top two in next summer's tournament to travel to London in 2012. Pitino met with Dallas Mavericks guard J.J. Barea and Miami Heat point guard Carlos Arroyo -- both Puerto Rico natives -- in Miami on Sunday to gauge their interest and came away impressed.

If it doesn't finish in the top two, Puerto Rico can qualify for the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (site and dates TBA) by at least finishing in the top five teams in the Tournament of the Americas.

If host Great Britain is given an automatic spot in 2012, then the top three teams from the World Qualifying tourney will qualify for the Games. If Great Britain is not awarded an automatic berth, then the top four finishers in the tournament will gain Olympic berths.

"These guys, playing for the national team is the biggest thing in the country," Pitino said. "They are very, very passionate about it and that was a major factor for me."

Puerto Rico last qualified for the Olympics in 2004, finishing sixth in a tournament that included a win over the United States.

Pitino is not the first high-profile American coach to lead a foreign national team. Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson unsuccessfully tried to get Mexico into the 2008 Olympics, and longtime NBA coach Del Harris led China to an eighth-place finish in the 2004 Olympics.

Though he has no international coaching experience, Pitino doesn't expect a difficult transition. He plans to bring the uptempo system he's used with great success at Providence, Kentucky and Louisville to Puerto Rico.

Rick Pitino agrees to coach Puerto Rico's national team - ESPN

 

[neljtorres]

Let's see if the spoiled apples that are in the team learn a lesson with Pitino!

 

[salsadancer7]

Let's see if the spoiled apples that are in the team learn a lesson with Pitino!

One can hope. They really need a good seasoned coach to help that team. Did you know that Phil Jackson's coaching career started in Puerto Rico, for Los Piratas de Quebradilla?

 

[SamCdbs]

Somebody explain this to me.

Puerto Rico is part of the USA, but it (and the Virgin Islands) have always had their own Olympic teams. Now, any American citizen has just as much right to move to Puerto Rico as they do to move to any state. You catch a plane to San Juan, rent a place, stop by the DMV and such and you are "Puerto Rican", at least in the legal sense the same way a person is a North Carolinian or a Nevadan.

So are there rules for the Olympics, or could the Miami Heat all just move to PR for the summer?

 

[neljtorres]

One can hope. They really need a good seasoned coach to help that team. Did you know that Phil Jackson's coaching career started in Puerto Rico, for Los Piratas de Quebradilla?

Yeah and they fires his ass after a couple og games in Quebradillas

 

[neljtorres]

Somebody explain this to me.

Puerto Rico is part of the USA, but it (and the Virgin Islands) have always had their own Olympic teams. Now, any American citizen has just as much right to move to Puerto Rico as they do to move to any state. You catch a plane to San Juan, rent a place, stop by the DMV and such and you are "Puerto Rican", at least in the legal sense the same way a person is a North Carolinian or a Nevadan.

So are there rules for the Olympics, or could the Miami Heat all just move to PR for the summer?

The Olympics are different. The thing is that PR and the Virgin Islands have their own separate Olympics Comittes from the States. It's like China Tapei has one separated from China.

Frankly since I was born and raised in the States I always will be cheering for the USA teams and here second that's my opinion

 

[salsadancer7]

Somebody explain this to me.

Puerto Rico is part of the USA, but it (and the Virgin Islands) have always had their own Olympic teams. Now, any American citizen has just as much right to move to Puerto Rico as they do to move to any state. You catch a plane to San Juan, rent a place, stop by the DMV and such and you are "Puerto Rican", at least in the legal sense the same way a person is a North Carolinian or a Nevadan.

So are there rules for the Olympics, or could the Miami Heat all just move to PR for the summer?

What is the question?

 

[SandraC]

What is the question?

It's the words before the question mark....


Sandra

 

[Ramy]

I am surprised his wife is letting him do this after all the trouble he has had.

 

[salsadancer7]

I am surprised his wife is letting him do this after all the trouble he has had.

Who knows? Maybe she is going....

 

[Ramy]

Who knows? Maybe she is going....

Good point.

 

[SandraC]

Who knows? Maybe she is going....

and maybe not.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

and maybe not.

Sandra

Yeah...she will take Louisville over the tropics.....lol?

 

[SandraC]

Yeah...she will take Louisville over the tropics.....lol?

...perhaps she'll go to Hawaii instead.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

...perhaps she'll go to Hawaii instead.


Sandra

I have lived in one and honeymooned and visited the other....same difference, one has a shorter flight than the other.

 

[SandraC]

I have lived in one and honeymooned and visited the other....same difference, one has a shorter flight than the other.

Not intended as a comparison between the Caribbean and Hawaii...there is a lot more to it than what you just said, but let's leave it at that.

But perhaps she'll go to Hawaii just to be away from her philandering husband.


Sandra

 

[salsadancer7]

Not intended as a comparison between the Caribbean and Hawaii...there is a lot more to it than what you just said, but let's leave it at that.

But perhaps she'll go to Hawaii just to be away from her philandering husband.


Sandra

Young...it would be better to get the divorce because then she could go without him without worrying about what he is doing.

The Caribbean and the south Pacific is the same. The lure is that one is a quickie plane ride and that does not make so..so magical. When you know they have to fly 4-6 hours...it make it more alluring.

...you know, supply and demand....

 

[SandraC]

The Caribbean and the south Pacific is the same.

Been to both a few times and I disagree, but that is a different conversation for a different thread. No reason to stray this far from the topic and prolong it here.


Sandra

 

[Derwin0]

No reason to stray this far from the topic and prolong it here.

Never stopped any one here before

 

[SandraC]

Never stopped any one here before

True dat!!!


Sandra