Cesare Rubini (2 November 1923 – 8 February 2011) was an Italian basketball player and coach, and water polo player. One of the greatest European basketball coaches of all time, Rubini was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994, the first, and to this day, one of the few Italian basketball figures to receive such an honour, together with Dino Meneghin and Sandro Gamba. He has also been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame.

Rubini started to play basketball for his high school team in his native Trieste, where he graduated in 1941. The same year he began to play for Olimpia Milano, the most prestigious Italian League basketball club at that time. He however had a long-lived passion for water polo: this led him later to become one of the rare world sportsmen to play at the highest level in two different team sports.

In 1946, he won a silver medal with the Italian national basketball team at the EuroBasket 1946, held in Geneva. The following year, he also won a silver medal at the European Championships, but this time with the Italian national water polo team. In the meantime he had assumed the role of player-coach of Olimpia Milano: in 1948, however, he was called by the national teams of both sports. Rubini chose water polo, and won a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London, beating the Netherlands in the final. With Rubini as a full-time player, Italy could boast what was to be called the "Golden Settebello", one of the most valuable water polo teams ever, which also won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics and at the Turin European Championship of 1954. In both the events, Italy was behind traditional rivals of Yugoslavia and Hungary.

Ettore Messina (born September 30, 1959 in Catania, Italy) is an Italian professional basketball coach that is currently working as a consultant for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. He has won four Euroleague championships as a head coach. Messina is regarded as one of the best European basketball coaches, having been named in 2008, one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors.

He was named the Italian League's Best Coach three times, in the years 1998, 2001, and 2005. Furthermore, he twice won the Euroleague Coach of the Year award, in 2006 and 2008. He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Messina had two different stints (1989–1993 and 1997–2002) at the Italian League club, Virtus Bologna. During his second stint at Virtus, he coached the team to Euroleague trophies in both the 1997-98 and 2000-01 seasons. He then served as the head coach of the Italian League club Benetton Treviso, where he succeeded Mike D'Antoni as head coach in 2002.

Daniel Lowell "Dan" Peterson (born January 9, 1936) is a former American professional basketball head coach. He resigned his most recent position as the head coach of Olimpia Milano in the Italian Serie A1 after the team was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 2011 Italian league playoffs. The team has announced that he will assume another role (not yet announced) with the club. He is nicknamed "The Coach" for his legacy in Italian basketball.

Peterson went to Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill. He received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Evanston and a masters degree from the University of Michigan.

He served as assistant coach for NAIA school McKendree College from 1962 to 1963. From 1963 to 1964 he served as freshmen coach at Michigan State. After MSU, for one season, he was plebe coach at the United States Naval Academy. The next year, at the age of 30, he became head coach at the University of Delaware. In five years there, he assembled a record of 69 wins and 49 losses.

Eraldo Pizzo (born April 21, 1938) is an Italian water polo player who competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics, in the 1964 Summer Olympics, in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

He was born in Rivarolo Ligure, Genoa.

In 1960 he was a member of the Italian water polo team which won the gold medal. He played six matches and scored seven goals.

Four years later he finished fourth with the Italian team in the water polo competition at the Tokyo Games. He played six matches and scored five goals.

At the 1968 Games he was part of the Italian team which finished again fourth in the Olympic water polo tournament. He played all nine matches and scored 29 goals.

His last Olympic appearance was at the Munich Games where he finished sixth with the Italian team in the 1972 water polo competition. He played all eight matches and scored 12 goals.