Milt Palacio, Basketball Player POINT GUARD "Milt" Palacio (born February 7, 1978) is a retired Belizean-American professional basketball player who worked as the director of player development at the University of Idaho. He was born in Los Angeles Nationality:American, Belizean Height:6' 4" (1.93m) Parents:Rita Palacio, Clifford Palacio Palacio attended Junípero Serra High School in Gardena, California. He played college basketball at Midland College and Colorado State University, going undrafted in 1999. In his three years with the Rams, Palacio averaged 12.1 points, 4.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game. MOSCOW, Idaho – After wrapping up a 14-year professional playing career, including eight NBA seasons, Milt Palacio has joined the Idaho men’s basketball coaching staff as Director of Player Development. Palacio, who began his professional career with the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1999 and played in the NBA until 2006, spent the previous six seasons playing professionally in Europe. The former point guard is reunited with Idaho head coach Don Verlin, who was an assistant at Colorado State during part of Palacio’s collegiate career with the Rams. “I’ve stayed in touch with Milt throughout the years since he played for us at Colorado State,” Verlin said. “We’ve kept that relationship. He called and was deciding if he was going to play one more season or get into coaching, and it just happened to work out that I had an opening on my staff and it worked out perfectly.” Palacio’s duties will include helping with academics and mentoring Idaho’s players off the court, while also assisting Verlin with breaking down film and game preparation. “He’ll do a number of things, but probably most importantly is mentoring our young guys,” Verlin said. “Because it’s a non-coaching position, his impact will be more off the court. Teaching kids first and foremost about taking care of academics, and helping guys with the finer points of the game of basketball from a mental standpoint.” Verlin also hopes Palacio’s work ethic rubs off on the young Idaho team. “I hope they take what he did because he worked his tail off,” Verlin said. “I remember when we were recruiting him out of junior college he averaged six points per game, then every year he got better and better and was able to make it to the NBA.” Palacio earned team MVP honors for Partizan, Serbia in 2008. He is a native of Los Angeles, Calif. Belizean national team, In his first international tournament, Palacio led Belize to a gold medal at the 1998 CARICOM Basketball Championship, which the country hosted. Palacio was also a member of the team that won a silver medal at the 2009 FIBA COCABA Championship, held in Cancún, Mexico, losing in the finals of the hosts 106–103. Milt moved to Serbia for the 2007-08 season, signed by BC Partizan Belgrade...moved to Russia for the 2008-09 season, signed by BC Khimki Moscow. He named the 2007-08 Euroleague March MVP...won the 2007-08 Serbian National Championship with BC Partizan Belgrade…won the 2009-10 Spanish National Championship with Baskonia Vitoria...won the 2008 Serbian National Cup with BC Partizan Belgrade...won the 2008 Adriatic League with BC Partizan Belgrade...played the 2008 Adriatic League All Star Game...member of the Belize National Team...played at the 1998 and 1999 Central American Championship. Belize's dreams of qualifying in basketball for the 2012 London Olympics have been dashed after the national team failed to advance in the Centrobasket tournament. That's after they were edged out by Puerto Rico on Saturday, 96 - 88. Team Belize competed throughout and played well in spurts but never managed to take the lead even though they did tie the score in the fourth quarter. In the end, team Belize was undone by poor three point shooting, and the inability to defend against the much bigger Puerto Rico team. The proof of that was that the Puerto Rican's seven foot - two inch center Peter Ramos scored 27 points and only missed 6 shots. That team also had three current NBA players on its roster. For Belize, Milt Palacio was the leading scorer with 24 points and 6 assists while Keenan Jourdan had 19 points. That loss left Belize two and two in the tournament - the same as both Mexico and Cuba. But in the end, only Cuba qualified to go unto the next round because they had the best point differential, after trouncing Trinidad and Tobago by 30 points. Apart from not qualifying, observers speculate that this is probably the end of the road for this nucleus of senior players as the core group of the players who first made their name at the CARICOM championships of 1998 are nearing or at retirement age. Produced by Rony Figueroa Media Management by Cheryl L. Noralez Sponsored by the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United, Inc. www.garifunaheritagefoundation.org

• published: 19 Mar 2016
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