Pitino v. Pitino: Louisville v. Minnesota in 2014 on Puerto Rico’s U.S. Air Station Borinquen

Mark BlankenbakerDecember 18, 2013

Pitino vs. Pitino in Father-Son Duel with 2013 National Champion Louisville Facing Minnesota in 2014
2016 Event from Pearl Harbor on Veteran’s Day

The Armed Forces Classic – a series of Division I men’s college basketball games – is being played on United States military bases worldwide over a five-year rotation – will originate from the Coast Guard in 2014, Marines in 2015 and Navy in 2016. The games will be played at a different branch of service at a Military installation each year.

The third annual game on November 14, 2014 will take place from the United States Air Station Borinquen in Puerto Rico and will feature 2013 national champion Louisville vs. Minnesota. Rick Pitino, a 2013 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, will face his son Richard Pitino, currently in his first season as head coach of the Gophers.

The 2015 Classic on November 13 will be played on a to be determined United States Marine base. The 2016 event on November 11 will feature a doubleheader at the Naval base in Pearl Harbor, HI – just under a month from the 75th anniversary of the attack. Teams for the 2015 and 2016 events will be announced at a later date.

The upcoming games will be televised on ESPN and as part of the network’s America’s Heroes: A Salute to Our Veterans initiative honoring the men and women who are serving and who have served in the United States military, both at home and abroad.

The inaugural game on Nov. 9, 2012 saw unranked Connecticut upset No. 14 nationally-ranked Michigan State 66-62 from inside a C-5 transport airplane hangar on Ramstein Air Base in Germany. In the second installment on Nov. 8, 2013, No. 19 Oregon topped Georgetown 82-75 from United States Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Both games were aired on ESPN and part of ESPN’s Veteran’s Week programming.

The Armed Forces Classic is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN.

For more information on the Armed Forces Classic, visit the official website or follow onFacebook and Twitter.

ESPN Regional Television
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN Regional Television (ERT), owns and operates a large portfolio of collegiate sporting events worldwide. The roster includes two Labor Day weekend college football games; 11 college bowl games and eight college basketball events, which accounts for approximately 200 hours of programming, reaches almost 64 million viewers and attracts over a half a million attendees each year. With satellite offices in Boise, Birmingham, Dallas-Fort Worth, Albuquerque, St. Petersburg and Las Vegas, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.

A subsidiary of ESPN, ERT is also the production headquarters for ESPNU; syndication rights-holder and producer of national and regional shows for college conferences (American, Big 12, Mid-American, SEC) and manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.

Collegiate Football
AdvoCare Texas Kickoff (Houston); BBVA Compass Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg; Boca Raton Bowl (Florida); Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise); Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque);Heart of Dallas Bowl Presented by PlainsCapital Bank (Dallas-Fort Worth); MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney (Orlando, Fla.); Raycom Media Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.); Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl; Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu); Texas Bowl (Houston) and The Home Depot College Football Awards
Collegiate Basketball
Armed Forces Classic (Camp Humphreys, South Korea); Charleston Classic Presented by Gildan (S.C.); Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Jimmy V Men’s & Women’s Basketball Classics presented by Corona Extra (Madison Square Garden & Durham, N.C.); Old Spice Classic (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan, PR); State Farm Champions Classic (United Center, Chicago) and DIRECTV Wooden Legacy(Orange County, Calif.)