Pitt freshman Karim Coulibaly takes game back to the international stage
Pitt incoming freshman Karim Coulibaly will prep for the season while representing Mali at the FIBA U19 World Cup beginning Saturday in Greece. Mali will play Latvia on Saturday, Canada on Sunday and Australia on Tuesday.
It will be Coulibaly’s second venture into international basketball after helping lead Mali to the U18 African Championship last summer, averaging 13.6 points, 11 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. He recorded a tournament-high 24 rebounds in a semifinal victory against Angola. For the eight-game tournament, he shot 58.7 percent (48 of 89) from the field, with three double-doubles in 22.2 minutes per game.
Coulibaly scored more than 1,000 points and helped Scotland Campus to 57 victories and consecutive No. 1 prep national rankings over the past two seasons.
After Coulibaly returns from Greece, he will join his Pitt teammates on a tour of Italy in August.
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Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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