Panthers’ trip goal: Experience
There’s much to learn on and off the court
The carefree days that define many college students’ summers are a more foreign concept to Division I college basketball players, a vast majority of whom remain on campus taking classes, practicing and working out.
While doing the latter two, life can get annoyingly repetitive as players, with games still several months away, compete against the same teammates on a daily basis.
“Look, players get tired of playing against each other,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “You want to have a chance to go against someone else.”
If that chance to play against an unfamiliar face is sandwiched between visits to the Sistine Chapel, Spanish Steps and Ponte Vecchio, not to mention a culinary walking tour of Bologna, all the better.
Earlier this week, Pitt received a reprieve from the drudgery of summer workouts in the most idyllic fashion imaginable, as it began a 10- day tour of Italy that will include three games while using the rest of the time to absorb and appreciate the sights, culture and food of a foreign country.
From a basketball perspective, though, it will provide not only an opportunity for players to bond, but also a chance for the coaches to see their team from a different perspective and begin to answer some of the questions on a seemingly endless list of them three months before their season opener.
“To me, it gives us an opportunity as a coaching staff to see if the things we’ve tried to work on with our returning guys since April, where are we with those things?” Capel said. “How can we incorporate those into real, live game situations? With our new guys, since they’ve been here, the things we’ve been working with them individually on, how does that fit? What does the team look like right now? Who are we right now? What are the strengths? What are the things we’re not so good at? Then, when we get back, we have a chance to evaluate where we are after playing three games.”
“Look, players get tired of playing against each other. You want to have a chance to go against someone else.” — Jeff Capel, Pitt coach
NCAA rules permit a program to have no more than one foreign tour every four years, and, since the Panthers previously went abroad in 2014, to the Bahamas, Capel saw a potentially valuable opportunity — especially with a large, six- player incoming class and a key trio of sophomores looking to mature further.
Perhaps most important, the tour allowed Pitt to hold 10 practices before their departure. Had that not been the case, coaches would have been limited to their NCAA-mandated four hours per week, though they still can do additional individual work with players.
The meat of the trip will come with three games from Aug. 8- 12, with a day off wedged between each one. In order, Pitt will play the Netherlands National B Team ( 1 p. m. ET), the Florence All- Stars ( 1 p. m.) and the Vicenza All- Stars ( 2 p. m.). The school will be providing in- game updates and highlights on the basketball program’s Twitter account, along with full recaps and extended highlights on the athletic department’s website.
“I’m very excited,” said sophomore point guard Xavier Johnson, the team’s scoring and assist leader a season ago. “There will be talent. I don’t know how good it is over there, but it’s a good experience.”
“We’re going to be playing against men,” Capel added. “These aren’t going to be college teams. These are grown men. It will give us a chance to see all these different things.”
When not on the court, the Panthers will shuttle between Rome, Florence, Bologna, Vicenza and Venice, making stops at the Colosseum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Trevi Fountain, Duomo, Gates of Paradise and Mercato Centrale among other destinations.
Capel has been on foreign tours twice in his head- coaching career, taking VCU to London — fulfilling a promise he made to Manchester native Nick George, one of his top players, during his recruitment — and his Oklahoma team to Vancouver in 2007. He has seen what comes from such trips, even if it’s just an opportunity for his players to see a new place.
“The majority of our guys have never been out of the country,” Capel said. “To have a chance to do that together as a team, to do that where they don’t have to pay for it and to get the experiences we’ll have a chance to go through — seeing the different sights, seeing the culture, seeing a different country.”