Long way off but- - 2017 Summer Exhibition Tour?

[tornado]

I just read where Wisconsin is planning to go to Australia this summer for an exhibition tour

http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/college/basketball/men/badgers-men-s-basketball-summer-trip-to-australia-new-zealand/article_2a1d2b09-4214-5059-8bc1-e2507cecabec.html

This summer 2017 will be FOUR YEARS since we last took a summer exhibition tour - so we will be eligible to do it again this year.. Maybe Australia? Maybe The Netherlands?

I sure hope our staff decides to do it!

http://bradleybraves.com/news/2013/8/13/209111660.aspx

[tornado]

Three Valpo players are going on a summer tour to Czech Republic & Poland with AIA

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mbasketball/news/2016-17/17427/gore-bradford-smits-to-embark-on-athletes-in-action-tour/#.WSILQGjyvIU

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Arizona State announces a summer exhibition tour to Rome and Barcelona on July 31-Aug. 8, hopefully our guys can do one this year or next..

[tornado]

well obviously our guys are not doing an exhibition tour...maybe cost prohibitive - but donors would have helped out...maybe next year....

anyway - one other thought - that while the thousands of fans were at the TBT games last weekend in Renaissance Coliseum...
there was a constant buzz among the fans about the group of current players sitting at courtside on the south end of the floor...
Many fans were noting which players were present & coming & going - who was who, and who might help us right away among the newcomers, who had bulked up or looked bigger, etc....

So - next year if we do the TBT thing or host games-
consider doing a Media Day or an open summer scrimmage for basketball during the week and letting fans know who the new guys are and what's going on with the current guys...
Of course you can still do another media day in the fall when season arrives - but just something to feed the summer interest the fans haveand wouldn't cost a cent...

[tornado]

Summer exhibition tours are starting...


Kansas is in Italy, their first game is Wednesday nite (start time will be 11:30 am here) and they play four games

https://twitter.com/KUHoops/status/892083193620443137

Others that have been announced:

UC-Riverside - Canada - August 1-6, 3 games
Mercer - Dominican Republic - August 1-14, 4 games
Montana - Costa Rica - August 3-8, 2 games
Oklahoma - Australia, New Zealand - August 3-14, 4 games
Alabama - Canada - August 4-10, 3 games
TCU - Australia - August 5-16, 5 games
Lamar - Costa Rica - August 6-10, 3 games
Utah - Spain & France - August 6-14, 3 games
Southern Miss - August 8-13 - Bahamas, 3 games
College of Charleston - Ireland - August 6-16, 3 games
Auburn - Italy - August 6-16, 3 games
Western Kentucky - Costa Rica - August 7-14, 3 games
New Orleans - Panama & Costa Rica - August 7-15, 4 games
Iowa - Germany, Switzerland, Italy - August 8-14, 4 games
Clemson - Spain - August 8-18, 3 games
Tulane - Spain - August 9-19, 4 games
Montana State - Canada - August 10-13, 4 games
Kent State - Costa Rica - August 11-18, 3 games
Arizona - August 11-20 - Spain, 3 games
American Univ. - Australia - August 11-21, 3 games
UTEP - Costa Rica - August 12-18, 3 games
Texas - Australia - August 12-23, 4 games
Wisconsin- New Zealand & Australia - Aug 12-24, 5 games
Colorado - Italy - August 14-14, 4 games
Utah State - Italy - August 16-26, 4 games
Duke - Dominican Republic - August 17-24, 2 games
UMass-Lowell - Italy - August 17-27, 4 games
Fairfield - Italy
Oregon State - Spain




It appears that for the first summer since 2011 there may not be a "Summer of Thunder" Preseason tournament in the Bahamas...
Last spring it was hyped as starting on August 1, 2017 - https://www.bahamas.com/event/summer-thunder-0

BUT there's been nothing mentioned since...so it appears it did not go off today as planned...
this was the preseason tourney Bradley went to in 2013 - http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22907

[tornado]

Some early results from foreign exhibition tours...

UC-Riverside trailed the entire game vs. Laval in Canada, then put on a 15-1 spurt to close out the game and win 73-68.
One of Luuk van Bree's fellow Netherlands natives & Canarias teammates -
Menno Dijkstra was the star with 13 pts - next game today at 4pm PT
UC-Riverside plays MVC's Valparaiso on December 20.

Mercer beat the Dominican National Team 89-75. Mercer trailed at half by 6, but outscored the Dominicans 54-34 in the 2nd half.
Ex-Wichita State Shocker Ria'n Holland led all scorers with 18 pts.
They play again at 4:30 ET today

Kansas won easily in Italy over Stella Azzurra/HSC Roma (a mix of players from Group D of Serie B in Italy (3rd tier) and a Roman Independent Sports Club), 90-56, Devontae Graham had 25, Malik Newman 22, former Bradley recruit Charlie Moore had 7 pts.
They play again today at 11:30pm.
But I am puzzled by Charlie Moore being eligible to play in this exhibition game. He just transferred from Cal in April, so per the rules as I recall in the past - he has to sit out a full year and thus should NOT be eligible to play even in an exhibition game. Perhaps NCAA has changed those rules?


Also Florida State leaving for tour to Jamaica- 3 games/12 days

[tornado]

Kansas wins their 2nd game 92-61 over a pickup group of players calling themselves "Players Group"
Kansas blew them out in the 1st half 52-26 and played mostly newcomers after that.
They play two more games, next game Saturday vs. the same team as today

[tornado]

UC-Riverside wins their 2nd game in a blowout 79-39 over Quebec-Montreal

Mercer beat a couple local club teams in Dominican Republic - San Carlos 83-54 then they beat Calero 69-45


and I stand corrected on the Bahamas Summer of Thunder preseason tourney against local Bahamian Club teams
..it is on and they finally announced the teams..
Chicago State, Penn State, Nicholls State, Southern University, Colorado State, Rhode Island College, Southern Mississippi, and Boston College.
Nicholls State has already won their first game against the Bahamas all-Stars in a defensive battle 106-103....and here is video - LINK - LINK

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Penn State needed double OT against the same Bahamas All Stars to pull out a 109-105 win


Butler won their first two games in Spain
They won 84-80 over Madrid All Stars in 1st game, then won 85-51 over Arcos Albacete Basketball Club (the team WIU's Garret Covington just signed with)

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Alabama won their first game in Canada
Alabama 96 - McGill 57

but one thing in their story about their tour was interesting...

SIU's Bola Olaniyan transferred to Alabama and played his final season last year...averaging just 3 ppg..
but they said this in their story ..
"Obviously Bola (Olaniyan) did a great job for us (last year) but struggled to score inside because he??™s only 6-5"

but he was listed as 6-7 on the SIU roster - so did he shrink 2 inches?

[tornado]

a couple exhibition results of interest...

Alabama clobbered Canadian exhibition opponent McGill by almost 40 points...
but SMU played them last night, needed to rally late in the 4th quarter and barely escaped in overtime 85-82.

Iowa played their first game in Germany, and beat a team called German All Stars 99-65....after leading just 48-44 at half.
Former Bradley recruit Christian Williams played only one minute.

http://hawkeyesports.com/documents/2017/8/8//Germany.pdf

Towson lost to a Canadian "All Star" team after beating Carleton.

[tornado]

another surprisingly close game..

Western Kentucky trailed most of the game vs. a Canadian college team called Laurentian
..but a 13-2 run at the end helped them to a 104-98 win..
Former Bradley recruit LaMonte Bearden scored 23 for WKU.

[Da Coach]

Alabama lost to Canadian powerhouse Carleton by 13, 84-71-

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/895464148104073216

Auburn beat an Italian team named Stella, 87-29

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/895466290134908929

[tornado]

Alabama lost to Canadian powerhouse Carleton by 13, 84-71-

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/895464148104073216

Auburn beat an Italian team named Stella, 87-29
https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/sta...66290134908929

that's interesting..
Towson beat Carleton by double digits, then Carleton beats Alabama by double digits

Carleton plays eight more DI schools before the end of August

Stella is the same team Kansas clobbered but this game they didn't even score in the 2nd period and trailed 47-8 at half

[tornado]

In addition to the start of some summer exhibition games...

there are some international championships being decided..


-Greece won the U20 Championships - and a couple US college kids played - including St. Josheph's and USC's Nick Rakocevic for Serbia.

-Croatia won the B division

-FIBA Asia Cup is going on right now - LINK - Australia is one of the stronger teams and includes Lake Forest Academy's (IL) Angus Brandt

-The Great Britain Senior Men's team is playing some friendly games this summer as a tuneup to the Eurobasket Championships
D-Lo's former Great Britain teammate Kavell Bigby-Williams is one of their key players.

http://www.gbbasketball.com/news/4256.php#.WYzjmlGGPIU

http://live.fibaeurope.com/www/Game.aspx?acc=5264&gameID=129578&lng=en

BTW- Bigby-Williams was cleared of all the previous charges - LINK - LINK