The Holy Land of Hoops

Hopefully this has a positive effect on Xavier and gives them an opportunity to grow earlier and work some kinks out. As a SJ fan this reminds me of the Euro trip we made...only it seemed to have zero positive effect...ugh.

SJHooper wrote:Hopefully this has a positive effect on Xavier and gives them an opportunity to grow earlier and work some kinks out. As a SJ fan this reminds me of the Euro trip we made...only it seemed to have zero positive effect...ugh.

It will really be a bit hard to tell what effect it will have on the 2014-2015 version of the Xavier Musketeers. With five freshmen and a junior-eligible transfer being added to our seven returnees (3 starters), there is really no baseline from which to judge their progress. On the other hand, I don't see where such a trip (and the extra practices it allows) can do anything but help a team to jell.

Every school in America does this every third year and you would think the extra practice that they are allowed to have on the travel year would help, but honestly the results aren't much different then in years they don't travel. SJU should have peaked early with all the European exhibition games but they didn't , Gtown went to china a few years ago and literally got their head bashed while playing a pro team. If it is good for the kids I like it, but I don't see much advantage to the team in how their season will go.

Cool. They should have a lot of fun and it can only help the team come together. Hopefully we do something similar, since we likely have a huge shakeup in the lineup next season.

On the Bulldogs trip to Australia last year, Rosey Jones hurt his hand sidelining him for the year. It definitely impacted our program, in a huge negative way. Not saying it was the trip's fault, but it did happen on the trip.

HoosierPal wrote:On the Bulldogs trip to Australia last year, Rosey Jones hurt his hand sidelining him for the year. It definitely impacted our program, in a huge negative way. Not saying it was the trip's fault, but it did happen on the trip.

These kids play in basketball games/open gyms on a daily basis in the summer. I'm pretty sure the odds of getting hurt at an open gym or summer league are pretty much the same as getting hurt in a game on a trip like this. Obviously it was just some bad luck that it happened on the trip.

I think any time you can get the extra practice and real competition for such a new/young group of players, it can only benefit the team and program. Obviously I don't think it will make a large difference in what kind of team we have next year, but it certainly won't hurt anything.

I believe the Friars are headed to Italy this Summer.

Trip seems to be going well. Lots of PT for newbies.

Highlights from the three games so far...

Really can't take anything away from these, but it's nice to see some live action during the summer.