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Posted on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 6 p.m.

As rules for foreign basketball tours change, one thing is the same - it's about practice

By Michael Rothstein

BEILEIN-practice.jpg

Michigan basketball coach John Beilein talks to his team during practice on Aug. 4 at Crisler Arena.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

John Beilein said he wasn’t going to go to Europe unless the freshmen on the Michigan basketball team could play.

At the time, the NCAA was debating allowing incoming freshmen to be eligible for foreign tours. When it passed, Beilein booked Michigan’s tour to Belgium, where the Wolverines will play their final game against Mons on Thursday.

Even before Michigan left, though, it saw the trip’s benefit. The cultural experience would be nice, seeing the Eiffel Tower would be fun, but the reality is simple.

Basketball programs use foreign tours to practice more.

“Getting these extra practices, you can just see a difference and just feel a difference,” Michigan freshman forward Jon Horford said. “And you just know, so much more.

“You’re more confident, and you feel better about it.”

Foreign tours - the NCAA allows teams to take one every four years - used to be more commonplace among veteran teams before the rule change. Florida took a fall trip to Canada between its back-to-back national championship seasons in 2006-07.

The rule change might signal a shift in teams taking foreign tours. Coaches might favor bringing teams with a lot of freshmen, like Michigan or Kentucky, which went to Canada earlier this month.

“If you bring in four or five guys, that might not be a bad time to go because you get the practice time,” said Northwestern coach Bill Carmody, who is taking his team returning four starters to Italy. “I think both are good, when you have a veteran team and you want to make sure everything is the same as it was and maybe you grow a little bit.

“The guys can recognize how important the year is and both those situations can be true.”

Veteran or rookie, the benefit is the same - 10 extra days of practice.

“We’re going to the Bahamas,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said earlier this month. “But I have no desire, I’m not a travel guy. I want to go to the Bahamas because I’m excited for our players but if it was up to me, I’d practice and then stay at home with my family.”

Some teams practice 10 consecutive days before traveling. Last year, IUPUI held three mini-camps spaced two weeks apart - three days and then two weeks off, three more days then two weeks off and then four days before it left for Costa Rica.

This year, Michigan broke its practices in half, going for a week, taking a week off and then practicing for another week before leaving for Belgium, where it started its four-game schedule 0-2.

Coaches who have gone on foreign tours regularly, like IUPUI’s Ron Hunter, explained strategic practicing scheduling helps prevent midseason burnout or peaking too early.

“First time I ever did it I made the mistake of doing it and coming back, and we practiced too hard,” Hunter said. “We got back into weights and conditioning and skill instruction, and it was too much.

“Even last year, the last couple times we’ve done it, we’ve come back and taken two weeks off with no basketball. We might hit the weight room, but no basketball for two weeks. It can catch up to you in January or February if you don’t do it correctly.”

Allowing freshmen to go on the tours only increases the need for caution on foreign trips. Often, freshmen hit a wall midway through their first season. A summer tour could accelerate that process or lead to better-prepared freshmen.

“Our biggest point is we’re going over there and there are going to be times there are ‘a-ha’ moments or ‘I get it’ moments,” Beilein said. “Now, when they come back to practice on their own and when we start official practice in October, they should be way ahead of where they would have been if we hadn’t done the trip.”

Hunter said his team wouldn’t have won 25 games last year without the foreign trip. It allowed him to experiment and tinker with different offenses, defenses and lineups. The one he settled on in Costa Rica ended up being the one he stuck with all season.

“It puts us ahead,” Pastner said. “Because you don’t have to restart re-teaching the drills. You get those out of the way, the basics of what you’re talking about, the basics of the philosophy, the stuff that you want to do.”

While there are many positives, some coaches have concern. At least one coach is not supportive of foreign tours for economic reasons.

States around the country are hurting. Universities are charging more money for students to attend college. And, new Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said, that is enough for schools to consider curbing foreign tours.

“I, personally, am against the foreign tours,” Kowalczyk said. “In these economic times, it’s hard to justify that kind of money, what I consider to be an absolute luxury and one that gives you a great cultural experience.

“But in these economic times, I have a hard time spending that kind of money when that might be better served elsewhere.”

Kowalczyk, who said Toledo has the capability to take a tour, said he was shocked the NCAA presidents haven’t put a moratorium on foreign tours. He also pointed to successful programs that don’t take foreign tours.

Michigan State, for example, has yet to take a foreign tour under Tom Izzo, a school spokesman said. Florida hasn’t taken a trip since the middle of its back-to-back title runs. Kowalczyk said he wouldn’t take a trip merely for the practice time, either.

Not all coaches see foreign tours as luxuries, though. Some see it is a competitive necessity both in recruiting and in team preparation.

“It’s essential to be able to do because now, a lot of kids will study abroad and the chance to expose kids to a foreign culture, when are these kids ever going to get a chance to go to Italy again,” said Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, who took his team to Italy this summer without his freshmen. “We brought a professor so we had a presentation on what we were going to see; we had great tour guides.

“I just think from an educational perspective as they might have in four years. So I think it might be crazy to get rid of it.”

Bucknell, a small, private school, funded its trip by playing guarantee games - his team is playing at Villanova, Marquette and Boston College this year. At the public IUPUI, Hunter agreed to have his team play in an exempt tournament in exchange for its trip to Costa Rica.

“There’s a lot of ways you can do it where you don’t even have to pay,” Hunter said. “I don’t buy that part with the budget when schools say that.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein

Comments

Engineer

Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 8:19 p.m.

lord knows we could use the practice but lack of talent will still sink our dreams.

nick

Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 7:36 p.m.

Practice? We talkin' about practice. Not a game, not a game. Practice.