MU to Canada for pre-season games

[DJO's Pump Fake]

Per our good friend Todd Rosiak, MU will play games over labor day weekend in Canada and have a chance to let the old and the new mix on the court.  The article is below - I think this is a great chance for the team to get off on the right foot this year.

MU heading to the Great White North

Four years after taking their last trip out of the country, the Marquette Golden Eagles are planning on doing it again.

Barring any snags, MU will travel to Vancouver, British Columbia over Labor Day for a series of games, much like it did heading into the 2003-'04 season with a trip to Costa Rica.

NCAA regulations allow teams to make such trips every four years and more schools have been taking advantage of it in recent years. The trips afford teams a few extra practices to prepare and also are valuable in that they allow returnees to bond with newcomers, which the Golden Eagles will have four of next season.

"We're putting all that together now," said coach Tom Crean. "We would have like four days to practice before we left, and we'll have some practices sprinkled in throughout the summer. Go up there and play some games, play the young guys a lot, get in some game situations."

The trip should also serve as a good trial run for MU's first regular-season foray - the Maui Invitational during Thanksgiving Week.

[mu_hilltopper]

The thing that wasn't discussed .. are these games open to the public?  Road trip to Vancouver!

.. I think this trip is huge .. extra practice, games, get those 4 new freshmen going early .. huge.

[MUEng92]

Is Vancouver, BC really what they had in mind when they came up with this rule of playing in a different country.

Don't get me wrong, it sounds like it will help the team to have additional days of practice.  But Vancouver is what, a 20 minute drive outside of the US?

[Harrison]

Who cares?....As far as I am concerned you are better off going to Canada and saving 10's of thousands of dollars than going across the seas.  The real benefit is the fact that this team can get together months before much of their competion have highly competitive practices and play in real games.  Just think of the benfits this brings for our incoming Freshman.  Compare this opportunity to what Lazar went through last year and the difference is extraordinary.

[SoCalwarrior]

If it were Washington State, then I would say they were not adhering to the spirit of the rule.  Or if SDSU practiced in Tijuana.   But MU to Vancouver seems pretty cool to me.  But to your point, the NCAA should just change the rule and allow teams to practice wherever they want over Memorial Day every four years.  

[ecompt]

couldn't resist.

[Harrison]

Are the incoming Freshmen on campus during Memorial day?

[sailwi]

Assuming it was meant to be Labor Day. 

Although it fills the criteria seems in the od days these out of country trips also gave the players exosure to other cultures and some of the sights.  I seem to remember MU went to S. America with Al and the fans were so incensed and out of control that Al told the players to lose the game so they could get out of there alive.

I remember reading about the badger's trip to Italy last year and that seemed more of an eductional experience along with basketball, not implying any love for the badgers.  I think one of the drawbacks to going over the summer is the incoming freshmen are not allowed to go hence the Labor Day time frame when the first semester has already started at MU.

[77ncaachamps]

Going to Vancouver is an excellent choice as a destination: It's much prettier than the "20 minute drive" that was alluded to earlier. And it beats playing across the border in Winnipeg!!!

Don't understimate the minds here: BC is becoming a hotbed of hoops and especially it's proximity to another hotbed (the U.S. Pacific Northwest) will help Marquette spread its name even farther.