BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — With the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Friday, the pool play portion of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament begins on Saturday. Two former LSU men's basketball players and a present member of the LSU men’s basketball coaching staff will be on the floor for the three games of competition in the 12-team event, which will send eight teams to the medal round. Duop Reath and LSU associate head coach David Patrick will be a part of Team Australia. The Boomers won the bronze medal in the 2021 Games, which was delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, Puerto Rico advanced to the Games by winning a qualifying tournament for one of the last four spots in the tournament. Former LSU Tiger point guard Tremont Waters is on the roster for Puerto Rico. US beach stars Kloth, Nuss didn’t need the Golden State. They’re going for gold at Olympics anyway The games will be played in Pierre Mauroy Stadium. Australia opens at 4 a.m. Saturday against Spain, in a game that will start on Peacock and be available on CNBC beginning at 4:30 a.m. The Boomers second game in Group A against Canada will take place at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 30, against Canada on Peacock and the final group stage game for Australia will be at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 2 against Greece. The contest with Greece will air on USA Network. Puerto Rico opens on Sunday at 4 a.m. against South Sudan in a Group C game on CNBC. That will be followed with a game against Serbia at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, July 31 on Peacock. The final group game will be at 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 3 against USA and that contest will air on NBC Sports. The quarterfinals to begin the medal round are Aug. 6, with the semifinals on Aug. 8 and the Gold Medal contest will be at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 10. Born in South Sudan, Reath and his family moved to Brisbane when he was nine years old, before relocating to Perth, where his basketball dreams began. See how LSU prepared gymnastics star Aleah Finnegan for 2024 Paris Olympics The emerging center attended junior college in Texas and then was recruited to LSU in 2016 where he produced two-years of strong performances. Reath went unselected in the 2018 NBA draft but earned a Summer League contract with Dallas Mavericks. He took his game to Serbia where he made an impact in Euro League with KK Crvena Zveda, winning championships in both the Serbian domestic and ABA leagues. Reath returned to Australia and made his National Basketball League debut in 2021, producing a strong campaign with the Illawarra Hawks. Internationally, he was featured in four of the Boomers six games at the 2020 Olympic Games, which netted a bronze medal. Reath played in Lebanon before landing a spot on the Portland Trail Blazers in 2023. He had a breakout year in the 2024 NBA season averaging 9.0 points per game for the Trail Blazers and signing a multi-year contract late in the year with the Trail Blazers. Patrick is beginning his second stint at LSU after a four-season coaching stint for the Tigers from 2012-16. Since 2019, he has been an assistant coach for the Australian National Team and the Boomers won a bronze medal at the 2021 Olympics, Australia’s first men’s basketball Olympic medal. In 2019, the team reached the FIBA World Cup Final Four, which included the country’s first-ever win over the United States. Waters was a key offensive player during the qualifiers, alongside New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado. Waters, 26, was Puerto Rico’s second-leading scorer, averaging 15.3 points per game. Waters shot over 50% from the floor, averaged 5.5 assists a game and played over 24 minutes a contest during the qualifying tournament. As a freshman at LSU, during the 2017-18 season, Waters averaged 15.9 points, 6.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. His 198 assists broke the school record for assists by a freshman. Waters was named to the Freshman All-SEC team and was the Freshman of the Year in Louisiana. After the season, Waters entered his name in the 2018 NBA Draft, but did not hire an agent to preserve his collegiate eligibility, announcing his return to LSU for his sophomore season. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now BRProud Daily News SIGN UP NOW The highlight of Waters' 2018-19 season was highlighted when he scored the game-winning layup for LSU against the No. 6 seeded Maryland Terrapins in the second round of the 2019 NCAA tournament on March 23, 2019. Waters shot 39.6% (17-of-43) from the field in the tournament, averaging 16.7 points, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He earned All-SEC First Team honors that season. He was selected in the second round of the NBA Draft in 2019 by the Boston Celtics and played for three NBA teams, as well as earning 2020 NBA G-League Rookie of the Year. He continues to play professional basketball for the top-level league in Puerto Rico before joining the national team. (Press release provided by LSU Athletics) Latest News How to stop X from using your posts to train its AI Study: LSU ranks high in colleges with the most NIL deals Trump leads Harris by 2 points in new Wall Street Journal poll Former LSU basketball stars Tremont Waters, Duop Reath, coach David Patrick ready to start Olympic basketball play Saturday Louisiana man pleads guilty to migratory bird game violations, suspended from hunting for 1 year