The Syracuse basketball team will be taking a preseason trip to Italy this Summer. Here’s why that could be the foundation for a magical year.
One of the secret ingredients to a championship team is camaraderie. The Syracuse basketball squad is hoping they’ll have that in droves heading into 2019-20.
Chemistry won’t be easy to come by for the latest installment of the Orange. This squad will be replacing at least 60 percent of their starting lineup from last season and it could be even more pending Oshae Brissett’s decision.
With so many new cogs in the machine, it’ll be massively important for this unit to get to know each other sooner rather than later.
Luckily enough, all of these Syracuse players will have a unique bonding experience this Summer before the games actually start counting.
On the brand new show MSG 150 with host Bill Pidto and former Orange star John Wallace., Boeheim gave some more details on the team’s upcoming trip to Italy:
"“We try to go overseas when we have a young team. Heading into 2019 we have five freshmen, five sophomores, and three juniors (no seniors). We’re losing a ton of veteran firepower this year. So I think for these young guys to have 10 practices and four games in Italy and you get to eat a lot of good food over there too. I think we’re all looking forward to the trip. I think it’ll be a really good basketball experience. Usually, when we go on a foreign trip we have great years. That extra time really helps.”"
For those who don’t know, Syracuse will be playing four preseason games in Italy visiting Florence, Venice, Lake Como, and Rome.
Teams are allowed to take international trips once every four years and the last time Syracuse went on one of these trips the Orange won its’ first 25 games during the 2013-14 season, per Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com.
Hey if it worked last time, why not this time? Some superstition can’t hurt.
This is an opportunity for these young Syracuse players to build a foundational experience they can draw on all year long.
When I played high school football, we opened up the season playing in the Carrier Dome. It was an awesome bonding experience from the team practices, the actual game, and all the quality time we spent together off the football field. It propelled us to unparalleled success and much of the credit should go to that experience we had to kick off our season.
This preseason trip can be everything this Syracuse team needs to get off to a strong start:
- The 10 practices will be invaluable.
- You can’t replicate live bullets and there’s no experience like actually playing the game of basketball (so those four games will come in handy).
- And the unscripted life experiences these players share amongst themselves overseas can serve as motivation this season and will be life-long memories.