Summer bonding: Pitt, Duquesne, WVU basketball plan overseas trips
College basketball season will start early for Pitt, Duquesne and West Virginia.
The three teams will take advantage of an NCAA rule that permits teams to travel outside the U.S. where they can hold 10 practices and play exhibition games against international opponents.
Comprehensive 2019 Foreign Tour List. There will still be a few more additions to this. https://t.co/TH4A9NOY9Q
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 6, 2019
Pitt will visit Italy from Aug. 5-14; Duquesne will be in The Bahamas from Aug. 5-12; and West Virginia will travel to Spain Aug. 3-13, according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium Basketball Insider.
The trip will be the second summer tour for Pitt in two off-seasons under coach Jeff Capel. The Panthers traveled to Washington D.C. last year and visited Arlington National Cemetery, the National Museum of African American History and several other landmarks. Basketball was not part of the itinerary.
Capel, who visited the White House when he was an assistant at Duke, considers such trips educational and an opportunity for players, many of whom will be new to the team, to bond with each other.
“The trip was about learning and, really, understanding sacrifice,” Capel said last year. “Part of our job is to teach and educate, not just about basketball.”
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Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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