Coaching Pitinos ready to open season Friday

It didn't take long for the jokes when Rick and Richard Pitino hosted a joint press conference on Tuesday night ahead of their teams' season opener against each other on Friday.

"We're all out of breath from trash talking," Rick said.

Then Richard cut in. "You've made us do it for, like, five months," he said. "We've run out of material."

This was their last press conference before Friday's game between the University of Louisville and Minnesota, which tips off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. They'd fired so many of their smack-talking bullets that their joint meeting with the media was rather tame compared to their previous shots.

Instead, they talked at length about the experience of their families and teams traveling to a U.S. Coast Guard base on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico and playing in front of some 1,400 U.S. military members inside an airplane hangar.

ESPN will broadcast the game, which kicks off the 2014-15 college basketball season.

"In the beginning, you wondered what the game would be like," Rick Pitino started. "But after seeing this Veterans Day and all the exposure we've given our military, and rightfully so, Richard and I both feel it's such a great honor to be a part of this game."

Both teams have special uniforms for the occasion, and the event will continue ESPN's annual Armed Forces Classic series, which has visited American military forts and bases around the world over the past six years for similar games.

The teams will fly together to Puerto Rico, and they'll attend on Thursday a Coast Guard demonstration on the beach at U.S. Air Base Borinquen, which is in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

"Richard said he wanted to get great exposure for their program," Rick Pitino said. "I didn't realize what a great thing it is for us as well. Looking at it, I just didn't want to play my son, but it's great for Louisville basketball to be a part of this and I'm glad he talked me into it."

The next few days will feature a ton of Pitino vs. Pitino stories, though they've already started trickling out. The jokes have all been made. Loyalties within the Pitino family are divided – or can be bought, Rick joked.

It's been months in the making. Tuesday's press conference was the kick-off for the whole thing.

And there will actually be a basketball game in there somewhere, one that the younger Pitino expects to win this time.

The last time the two Pitinos coached against each other, in 2012, Louisville ran past FIU 79-55. That game, Richard Pitino joked, was "to collect a check," referring to FIU's lump payment for traveling to Louisville to play the game.

"It's totally different" on Friday, Richard said. "We're preparing to win a game. Obviously, regardless of (Rick Pitino), it's a great opponent … We understand that we're playing a great opponent."

Both Pitinos insist the flight back won't be too harsh, no matter who wins. Rick, his son said, has calmed down quite a bit in recent years and doesn't take losses so hard.

And, Rick added, it would mean a top-10, marquee victory for his son's program.

Still, it's hard to believe that the trash talk won't come back. Both Pitinos will have fresh material.

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).