Louisville and Minnesota head to Puerto Rico today (and so do I)

Minnesota - Louisville tips off at 6 p.m. CT on Friday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

This year, the college basketball season opener likely won't sneak up on anyone in Minneapolis.

Lately, the Gophers have grown accustomed to easing into the schedule with a handful of cupcake opponents.

But on Friday, Minnesota gets Louisville -- the country's No. 8 ranked team and one that just happens to be coached by Pitino's father, Hall of Famer Rick Pitino -- instead, and right away, things get interesting.

Amid the fanfare expected to go along with such a matchup, every mention of the event has been analyzed and flung across social media.

In July, the elder Pitino -- who loves a good-hearted jab that doesn't go away quickly -- joked that his son "likes to take his summer drinking pina coladas" on the beach in a Louisville press conference. The ensuing blogs were picked up around the country.

By September, the younger Pitino was already warning Gophers fans on his blog to ignore his father's antics.

Now that the week of the event has finally arrived (and the younger Pitino will finally address all of our persistent questions about the father-son matchup without rolling his eyes), the hype hasn't dulled any, even if the jokes are tapering.

"We're all out of breath from trash talking," Rick Pitino said in a joint press conference in Louisville last night.

"You've made us do it for, like, five months," Richard added. "We've run out of material."

The Gophers started throwing Louisville prep into their practices here and there since they officially started. This week, of course, things have heated up both metaphorically and literally.

Leading up to a game that will be played in a gym without air conditioning (making sports writers everywhere gasp and shudder), both Pitinos have been heating their gyms to between 85 and 90 degrees for practices. Temperatures in Aguadilla are predicted to be in the mid 80s on gameday. A hydration process began this week also.

Last night, the two Pitinos met up in Louisville and had a joint press conference (notes here) at the university before dinner and a grandkids sleepover at the elder Pitino's house.

This morning, they'll hop on the Cardinals' private charter to the island -- Pitino noted Minnesota made that decision to save money -- where they'll soon settle into the Courtyard Marriott near the US Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen in Aguadilla (essentially on the opposite, and far less touristy side as capital San Juan).

Sharing a plane is all good fun on the way down, but what about the way back?

Someone will obviously lose the game, and then be forced to ride back with the one who kicked their tail in.

"It's different," Pitino said. "If we were [leaving] the night of, that might be a little hairy but the next day it won't be as bad for either of us."

But just in case, there will also be a space buffer.

"We saw the seating chart [on Monday], so we're not sitting right next to them," senior Elliott Eliason said. "We're separated by the exit row, and we're in the back, unfortunately. But it's their plane so they can do what they want."

On Thursday, the teams will each have a practice at the airplane hangar-turned-basketball-arena, and observe a Coast Guard demonstration at Crash Boat Beach, before joining Base Wing Night with Coast Guard officials at the Community Center.

"I think when we get down there, for anyone that comes there, they're going to realize how cool this whole being on a Coast Guard base, doing it for the Armed Forces," Pitino said. "That part of it we're really excited about."

Friday, Coast Guard Academy will play Hampden-Sydney in a Division II game at the hangar before the Gophers tip off with Louisville at 6:30 CT. The venue -- which seats about 1,400 -- will mostly consist of the Coast Guard. Otherwise, each Pitino received 60 tickets to dole out as they saw fit.

Which Pitinos sit on which side of the bleachers is still a matter of debate. Young Pitino says his mother, Joanne, will root for him. His sister, Jacqueline, won't make the trip because of work, and neither will younger brother Ryan, who infamously wore a chicken suit to one of Minnesota's games last season. The elder Pitino claimed another son, Michael, would sit behind his bench.

"And [fourth son] Chris will go to the highest bidder," Rick said.

Added Richard, with a grin: "So many people make a big deal about where Mike and Chris are sitting. I think they care more about who they're going to celebrate with after the game. That's more important to them."

Is he buying if he wins?