Category Archives: D-III overseas

Behrend in Brazil: Getting started

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The Penn State-Behrend men’s basketball team is Brazil, on an eight-day/seven-night tour of Brazil’s most historic cities including Guaruja, Sao Bento do Sapucai and Paraty. The team will compete in three contests against Brazilian teams and co-host two basketball clinics during their travels. Chris Saltzman blogs:

The plane ride was long roughly 9 hours, but all worth it. We had about an hour and half bus ride from the airport to our hotel in Guaruja, Brazil. Guaruja is right on the beach and you can see the ocean from our hotel. We rode through the city of Sao Paulo, which was extremely eye opening. There was massive amount of poverty, which really makes you think about how good we have it back in the states.

We had practice at a community sports complex and there were little kids in awe when they saw us walk in. Our tour guide said it is not every day they get to see Americans and it is a big deal when they do. They were making our old assistant coach say words in Portuguese which were apparently bad words and they loved it. They were watching us practice as if they have never seen basketball before. They were asking for our autographs which felt pretty abnormal but it made the kids happy.

We went to a place called Hurrascaria Chapao for dinner. They were bringing around all different kinds of meat, slicing it right at the table. When the servers brought it to your table you had to use prongs to catch it as they sliced everything and anything you could have imagined. I must say that if you haven’t tried some chicken heart before you should probably get on it asap.

Brazilian meat

Next up – Surfing lessons at a local beach. Looking forward to seeing who can actually stay on the board.

Augie in China: Tourism and industry

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Augustana senior Kyle Nelson and his teammates are in China. He will be blogging regularly on D3hoops.com about the team’s journey.

After a day fully devoted to basketball, today was a change of pace and was focused on tourism and learning. Our day began at nine o’clock in the morning and we headed to an ecological garden in a township on the outskirts of Wuhan. The ecological garden was a government-funded group that would bring in local farmers, free of charge, and teach them how and what to grow in the region to be successful and profitable. We wandered the grounds briefly before getting back on the bus to head to a crane factory in town.

The crane factory was one that built the massive cranes that are used to construct very tall buildings. The most noticeable thing was how bad the working environment was and the limited protection that the workers had while operating heavy machinery. The money that these employees got paid was not nearly enough to compensate for the risk they were taking. I believe their payments came to about 300 United States dollars a month.
 
After the crane factory we walked around the town a bit then headed to the tea and rice fields. Here we saw the large plots of land where they would grow and sell their products. Dr. Norm Moline, the Augustana geography professor who has been so instrumental in making this trip great, and our local guide spent some time explaining how these products worked best for this land and environment.

Tea fields

We had three more stops on our trip for the day. The first was to the government building of the township. Here we spent some time listening to one of the town officials speak about the future of the township and how it was expanding.

The next two stops were factories that were complete 180 degree turns from what he had been seeing. They were in a “High Tech Economic Zone”

The first was a company that built laser machines that served many purposes. Some examples were machines that reduced wrinkles, could help with skin cancer and could remove tattoos. The company officials explained how they were already successful in Europe, but were seeking to gain FDA approval so they could begin sales in the United States. One of the employees demonstrated the use of the machine on assistant coach Larry Schulte, but everyone was rather skeptical if it actually had any effect. Finally, the last stop on our non-stop tour was a factory that produced goods ranging from popsicles to baby formula. We were taken inside of their warehouse and watched the assembly line workers package and make these good that were shipped to all corners of China.
 
Overall, it was a very informative day and a good learning experience to see how business operated in a foreign nation.
 
Off to Xi’an in the morning!
 
— Kyle Nelson

Augie in China: Game day in Wuhan

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Augustana senior Kyle Nelson and his teammates are in China. He will be blogging regularly on D3hoops.com about the team’s journey.

Today was the first day of the trip that was dedicated just to basketball. We woke up and bused about thirty minutes to Huazhong Normal University for a game day practice. The gym was very nice, very big, but very hot. There was no air conditioning in the building and as practice wore on it got more and more difficult to keep our footing. Huazhong Normal was very gracious to allow us to practice in their facility. Augustana has had a long running friendship with Normal due to a student and teacher exchange program that dates back into the 1980s. This relationship allowed us to gain access to their gym free of charge.

After practice we had a few hours to cool down before we ate a pregame meal and got back on the bus for our game. The game was in another part of Wuhan and was against Huazhong University of Science and Technology. HUST is very comparable to the size of a Big Ten school. There are about 50,000 students that attend the university and it is one of the best universities academically. It also happens to be one of the top Universities for basketball at the college level in China.

When we drove up to the arena our bus was greeted by a massive red sign that had many Chinese symbols on it, but also unmistakably said Augustana right in the middle. We walked into the gym, which seats around 6,000, and saw the massive scoreboard which read China HUST versus USA Augustana. This was the moment that it hit us that this game was more than just two college teams; it was two teams representing their countries. The team got dressed and we took multiple pictures in front of the various signs that had our name.

Augustana team doing tai chi

There were about 4,800 people in attendance for the game and the crowd was very loud and energetic from warm-ups to the final buzzer. HUST has quite a few big players including a center who could have passed for a sumo wrestler. From the tip to the first quarter it was a pretty neck and neck game, with both teams playing very well. However, in the second quarter we began to pull away with great team defense to get a 23 point lead at halftime. From this point there was no looking back and we cruised to an 80-56 victory for team USA.

Augustana team poses with HUST after the game
Augustana beat Huazhong University of Science and Technology 80-56.

Augustana's Kyle Nelson holds a young boy after the gameOnce the game was over was when the madness began. We were all swarmed by the Chinese fans and asked to take pictures with just about everyone, from adults to babies. At one point I was just handed someone’s child and took about three or four pictures with him. Not only was the game memorable, but I think everyone will take away a great feeling from this game for how we were received as honored guests in Wuhan, China.

One final day in Wuhan then off to Xi’an!

Kyle Nelson

The game story follows:

WUHAN, China – Playing without starting point guard Brian DeSimone (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) didn’t seem to faze Augustana as the Vikings defeated Huazhong University of Science and Technology by a score of 80-56 on August 9 in Wuhan, China. DeSimone was ill and missed the contest but senior Drew Croegaert (Geneseo HS, Geneseo, Ill.) and junior Eric Safranski (Putnam County HS, Granville, Ill.) stepped up and performed well. Croegaert and Safranski combined for nine assists and one turnover in the game.

“This was a solid effort, especially without our starting point guard,” said head coach Grey Giovanine. “Once again our depth and ability to play hard the whole way made the difference.”

The game was close after the first quarter with Augustana clinging to a 15-14 lead. Solid defensive play in the second quarter helped forge a 31-12 run during that 10 minute session and the Vikings led 46-26 at halftime.

“We converted several steals into easy baskets in the second period and that really helped,” said Giovanine, whose team is now 2-0 on the China trip.

Brandon Kunz (Lake Zurich HS, Lake Zurich, Ill.) led the team in scoring with 12 points and he grabbed eight rebounds as well. Kyle Nelson (Deerfield HS, Deerfield, Ill.) contributed 10 points and Bryant Voiles (Byron HS, Byron, Ill.) added eight rebounds. The Vikings held a plus 13 advantage in the rebounding department and grabbed 18 offensive boards.

The Augustana defense held Huazhong to just 16 of 54 from the field and only three of 14 from three point range after giving up 10 three pointers in the opening game of the trip on Saturday. In that 82-66 win over the Dongguan Snow Wolves the Vikings surrendered 10 of 26 from three point range.

This game drew particular interest on Huazhong campus as a capacity crowd of 4,800 was in attendance to watch the Vikings put on what amounted to defensive and rebounding clinic.

“What a great experience for our players to compete in an environment with nearly 5,000 fans who were really into the game,” said Giovanine. “The crowd was appreciative at how hard our guys competed and they cheered every hustle play we made and we made a lot of those.”

Augustana will play Xi’ian University on Aug. 12.

In Europe: Off to Germany

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Chris McDevitt is part of a group of Division III players (and three Division II players) traveling to Europe as an All-Star team this month. His latest blog entry follows:

Day four was time for us to say goodbye to Mechelen, and pack our bags for Germany. On the way to Dusseldorf we stopped in the city of Cologne to do some more sightseeing.

We saw the world’s second largest church, which was unbelievable. After a few pictures near the church we went to eat down by the Rhine River.

Our tour guide for the week suggested I get a schnitzel. A schnitzel is tender pork lightly breaded. The restaurant we ate at had many different types of schnitzels. I decided on the Mediterranean schnitzel which had a tomato sauce and cheese on top. This was by far my best meal of our trip.

Once we finished touring in Cologne, we were off to Dusseldorf. When we arrived we checked into our hotel and headed to our game. We definitely played better as a team this game and ended up winning by around 30 points. The opponent was not as talented and organized as the previous team but we stressed to just play hard and have fun. After our game we enjoyed dinner with the opposition then went out in Dusseldorf to explore the string of over 250 restaurants and pubs in the Old City area.

Next time I check in we will have competed in our fourth game and experienced more of Germany.

Augie in China: Tai Chi, Yangzi

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Our first flight in mainland China took us from Guangzhou to Wuhan (population 9 million), a city north of our prior stop. We boarded a China Southern flight and were on the plane for only an hour and twenty minutes; a relief compared to our two previous flights on this trip. Once in Wuhan we met our tour guide Pony and she bused us to the Holiday Inn located in downtown Wuhan, right on the Yangzi River. The river is one mile wide and 70 feet deep. So compared to the Mississippi River, it is massive. The Yangzi River is the third largest river in the world and flows right through the middle of China.
 
Augustana team doing tai chi
The Augustana team, including coach Grey Giovanine’s son, Luke, far left, gets a Tai Chi lesson in a hotel atrium.

Our travel group got to experience a very unique session with a Tai Chi master in an area just off our hotel lobby. Master Miles, a friend of our tour guide, agreed to come in and give us an hour and a half lesson in Tai Chi. He began with a demonstration of what he could do, displaying the impressive flexibility and balance that Tai Chi requires. After he finished it was our turn. He taught us quite a few moves, some pretty simple and some rather difficult.

Tai Chi seemed to be much more manageable for the people who were not 6’8 and over 200 pounds. The big guys had some trouble with some of the flexibility moves, but it was all in good fun and a very worthwhile experience.
 
An early bed time was in order to prepare for our toughest game of the trip thus far against Huazhong University of Science and Technology. It is the largest university in central China and has an enrollment between 30 and 40 thousand. The Vikes are 1-0 so far overseas.
 
More from Wuhan tomorrow!
 
-Kyle Nelson