Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU Schedules Foreign Basketball Tour to Spain
June 30, 2012 | Cowboy Basketball
June 30, 2012
Stillwater, Okla. — Oklahoma State's men's basketball squad will travel to Spain this August for a 10-day foreign basketball tour, it was announced today by head coach Travis Ford. The Cowboys will play five games against international competition in preparation for the 2012-13 season.
"We're excited to take advantage of this opportunity," Ford said. "This provides us with a terrific chance to improve as a basketball team. It gives us an extra 10 days of practicing and preparing for games, which will put us ahead of the curve once the season starts.
"It is also a wonderful opportunity for the guys on our team to visit a different culture in another part of the world, and learn a little in the process. It will serve as an educational experience as well, while giving our guys a chance to bond and build even better team chemistry."
This will be the first foreign tour that the Cowboy Basketball team has taken. Former coach Eddie Sutton scheduled a trip in the summer of 1995 to participate in the R. William Jones Cup in Taiwan, but due to scheduling, current Cowboy players were not allowed to travel, resulting in a makeshift Big Eight All-Star team making the trip.
The NCAA affords members the opportunity of traveling outside the U.S. to face foreign competition once every four years. The trip is being fully funded by private donations that were solicited by the men's basketball program.
“For me, this will be a new experience," said Cowboy forward Michael Cobbins. "It's a great opportunity to do something different with our basketball team. It will also give us a chance to go up against some other competition before basketball season starts. I'll also spend my birthday over there, so that will be different. I'm looking forward to seeing a different part of the world. As far as the team is concerned, it will give us a chance to bring in the newcomers and bond with the guys who have been here for the last couple of years."
“This is an excellent opportunity to build team chemistry," Cowboy guard Brian Williams said. "We've got a lot of chemistry with the core players, but it will be nice to get the new players in and see what we can get out of them. As far as traveling overseas, I expect it to be tough, but it will bring us closer together and let us bond better as a team. We will only have each other overseas.”
OSU will depart Stillwater on August 8 and travel to Barcelona, Spain, where the Cowboys will spend four nights. Their first competition will be against the Dutch U20 National team on Friday, August 10. Oklahoma State will then play CB Cornella, a professional basketball team located in a suburb of Barcelona, on Saturday, August 11. The Cowboys will wrap up their stint in Barcelona with a second game against the Dutch U20 team on Sunday, August 12. All three games will be played at the Cornella Sports Complex.
Oklahoma State will then travel to Grand Canary Island, where the Cowboys will spend the remainder of their trip. OSU will play a game against a squad made up of alumni of the Canarias Basketball Academy on Wednesday, August 15, and will wrap up the competition with a game versus the Canary Islands Select team on Friday, August 17. Those two games will be played at the gymnasium on the University of Las Palmas campus. The Cowboys will return home on August 18.
