Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Team Begins Preparations for Tour of Italy
5/13/2010 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
May 13, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - On Thursday evening the Sojka Pavilion lights will be turned on and the basketballs rolled back out, as the Bucknell men's basketball team begins preparing for a four-game, 11-day trip to Italy beginning May 25. The Bison are allotted 10 practice dates prior to the tour, which will take the team to destinations such as Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona and Como.
NCAA rules permit a team to take a foreign tour once every four years. Bucknell's last overseas trip was to Ireland and England in 2005. In 2000 the team visited Italy and Croatia, and in 1996 the Bison went to Denmark and Sweden.
Head coach Dave Paulsen will be bringing all 14 student-athletes and his entire coaching staff from the 2009-10 season. The additional spring practice session along with the four games against quality Italian professional club teams will certainly benefit the program from a basketball sense, but just as important are the cultural and educational elements of the trip.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for everyone involved with our program," said Paulsen. "From a basketball perspective, perhaps the greatest benefit is the NCAA-permitted 10 extra practice days. Our team took significant strides in the latter part of the season, and the players worked very hard in their spring individual workouts. Now coming off of final exams, they have the opportunity to continue to work on their games in a formal setting. This will also give us a chance to experiment a little bit, to take a look at some different things and with some guys in different roles. And then any time you get more game opportunities it makes you better. We are going to see good competition in Italy, and it will be good for our team to see a little different style of basketball.
"Equally if not more important than the basketball is the cultural, educational and team bonding aspects of the trip. At Bucknell we are all about fostering the complete student-athlete experience. To be able to see and learn first-hand about the history and culture of Italy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The study abroad program is very popular at Bucknell, but our players are not able to take advantage of it being in a sport that bridges both the fall and spring semesters. So it is very important to me to be able to provide our guys with an opportunity to travel abroad once during their four-year career."
After taking an overnight flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Germany and then on to Rome, the Bucknell traveling party will spend its first full day in Italy with a sightseeing tour of antique Rome on Wednesday, May 26. The following day, the team will visit Vatican City and tour St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel in the morning, then prepare for its first game later that evening against Virtus Aprilia Basket, a C1 Division team located about an hour's drive from Rome.
On May 27, the team will spend its last day in Rome touring the Roman Colosseum and Forum. A day later, the Bison will take about a five-hour bus ride to Florence, one of the world's epicenters of art and culture. The group will take a guided tour of Florence, including a stop at the Academy Gallery to see Michaelangelo's David.
On May 30 the group will take a bus ride to the town of Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. Later that evening the Bison will play its second game of the week against Arca Impresa Lucca, a B2 League team.
On Monday, May 31 the Bucknell tour will move on to Mestre, a borough located on the mainland just across from Venice. The team will take a ferry ride into Venice, where it will tour the famous "Floating City" and maybe even try out a ride on one of the trademark gondolas.
Bucknell's third game will be played on June 1, and it will come against the highest-level club it will see on the tour. The Bison will face Italian A2 League team Reyer Venezia, which features a number of former American college stars. Kiwane Garris was Illinois' No. 2 all-time scorer during his playing days in the mid-1990s. Brent Darby once averaged over 18 points per game for Ohio State, and Alvin Young was the national scoring leader in 1998-99 while playing for Niagara.
On Wednesday, June 2, the team will travel to the northern town of Como, but along the way it will stop in Verona for lunch and a quick sightseeing opportunity at Juliet's Balcony, the setting of the famous scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Later that evening the Bison will play their second game in as many nights against B1 League club Castelletto Ticino.
The last full day in Italy will be spent at beautiful Lake Como in the Italian Alps. The team will have the opportunity to take a boat tour with a stop at the renowned Bellagio resort, as well as ride a funicular up the side of the Alps to the town of Brunate.
On June 4 the team will fly back to Philadelphia from Milan through Frankfurt.
"When you go through a unique, shared experience like this, bonds are forged," said Paulsen. "Trips like these help teams create close, cohesive groups that understand each other on many different levels."
Be sure to check BucknellBison.com throughout the trip for daily recaps, photos and videos.
