The UW-Platteville men’s and women’s basketball teams are overseas. They will check in with Division III basketball fans from time to time. Jeff Skemp is our correspondent.

The past few days have been hectic on our trip. The illness that swept through both the men’s and women’s teams affected me, so I spent one whole day in bed, relaxing and not doing anything. It was determined that the illness was a very contagious virus, and a doctor was administering shots to those who were the worst off. It has since worked its way out of our group and everyone appears to be healthy.

As for the touring, I missed one whole day like I mentioned above, Saturday was spent mainly taking a bus tour around the countryside of the Killarney area. It appeared to me that we just kept seeing the same things over and over; once you have seen one church you have seen them all in my opinion. As quoted by one of the adults along on the trip, I think that we have seen 750,000 sheep too. They are all over the hillsides in the country much like cows are in Wisconsin.

We played our second game of the trip and won again by a score of 92-52. The scoring was very balanced again, and multiple players scored. More importantly than the individual efforts though is how different the game is played here in Ireland, playing with international rules. A few glaring rule differences are the 24 second shot clock which definitely speeds the game up, and we also have noticed that as soon as the ball goes out of bounds you can grab it and inbound it right away, without waiting for the official to give it to you. This is much different because in the U.S. we are used to waiting for the official, calling a play, calling matchups and so forth, while here it is all done on the fly. The last important thing is that although we have not played really talented teams while being here so far, the game is much more rough, and officiated much rougher than in the U.S. Although there are some differences, the objective to put points on the board still remains the same.

The women also won their game Saturday, beating St. Mary’s 53-49. Angie Vamstad’s 16 points and Charity Stotmeister’s 10 points led the Pioneers, while Megan Guernsey had six during an 8-0 run.

Sunday morning was more entertaining as we departed Killarney for Galway. We took our coach buses on a ferry across the Shannon River, and stopped for a period of time at the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. For lunch we did what we call adopt a student for lunch day. All adult couples on the trip adopt one or more of the students that are along and take them for lunch. This is very interesting and fun as we each get to learn about the other person, and their families. It is important for the people on the trip to get to know us then more than just basketball players. We have now arrived in Galway and will spend the rest of our time here before departing for home. We play one more game that I will be sure to write about.

Day 4: The day started off bright and early with a wakeup call at 6 a.m., breakfast at 7 a.m. and a supposed departure from Dublin at 8 a.m. The departure did not happen as planned though because of an illness that has now set into and affected more than 25 people from the group. Many thought that it could have been from one last night out in Dublin, but as 11 group members stayed in Dublin today because they were too sick to go with the tour, and countless others got sick as the day went on we are beginning to think that it may have to do with food poisoning. The trip and tour stops on the way to Killarney were not even that pleasant for those of us who were not sick. Out of three tour buses only one had a bathroom so all sick people were placed on that bus with those who were not sick. I am not sure that five minutes of the all day trip passed without the bathroom being occupied by a sick passenger. The worst part was though that while the bathroom or toilet in Ireland was being used, people were throwing up into shopping bags which Charlie Lohoff and I had the pleasure of cleaning up. Not to be worried though as a doctor was called to the hotel in Dublin and gave some sort of shot to those people and they will be joining us shortly and feeling much better. After arrival in Killarney a doctor was called to the hotel to check out those who got sick during the day and work to get them feeling better.

Now on to the not-so-exciting news for the day, our tour made stops at the Rock of Cashel which was a castle that not very many people toured. From there we continued on a bus trip to Cobh which was the last boarding site for the Titanic and where the Lusitania was torpedoed by German U-boats. We ate lunch at this stop as well has had some time to walk, and do some shopping. We then continued on to what many have felt as the most interesting tour attraction other than the brewery and distillery, and that was the Blarney Castle which is the home to the famous Blarney stone which many of the tourists kissed for the good luck and prosperity that goes with it. From there we again continued on and arrived at our hotel just before 8 p.m. and ate dinner. It sounds as if nearly everyone is staying in tonight as some are sick, and others are too tired to venture to far.