Tag Archives: Augustana

Augie in China: Arriving in Beijing

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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.

Augustana has arrived in Beijing, China!

After many days of travel, lots of sightseeing and three games, we have made to the last stop (in China that is, we stop in Tokyo, Japan also) of our China ’10 tour. We awoke in Xi’an at 5:45 am, ate a quick breakfast and drove to the airport to catch our 8:30 am flight. We were flying to Beijing early to prepare for our game against the Chinese Junior National team later that afternoon.

This team was the best group of Chinese players in the nation that were 18-21 years old. However, according to an inside source, an American weightlifting coach for the Chinese women’s basketball team, this team was playing as an 18-and-under team. Clearly age requirements are very loosely followed in China…just like their gymnastics team from the Olympics.

This team is also the group of players that will represent China at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China in 2011 and will be one of the gold medal favorites playing in its home country. We played the game against this team at the National Fitness and Training Center in Beijing. This center was a walled off area of Beijing, essentially like a gated neighborhood, that had facilities and training grounds for every sport that China competes in internationally. This is the location where they would have trained for the 2008 Olympics. As we drove in we got to see their female weightlifters, swimmers and drivers, and their gymnastics team all in training. It also appeared to have dormitories where the athletes would live on the grounds as well. It was a very impressive facility.
 
To say that their Junior National team was tall would be quite an understatement. On their frontline they had at least four 7-footers, including a 7’2 center. I am proud to say I won the tip from the guy although I don’t think my quick tip was legal. For the majority of the game we outplayed the taller Team China. Our energy and defensive intensity overwhelmed the Chinese players who were not as physical as us, which allowed us to outrebound them. Everyone that played did a tremendous job, but unfortunately the outcome did not go in our favor. We ended up losing by one as a last second shot off a nicely executed play drawn up by Coach Giovanine did not drop.
 
We came away from this game a positive note however. We competed and outplayed the best that China has to offer at our age. Of course we would have like to have been winners, but playing this caliber of completion in the environment that we did is something rare to experience in the summer.
 
We looks to bounce back today by facing one of the top five university teams in all of China, Tsinghai University. This team just back from a camp coached by American coaches and is looking for revenge after we beat them three years ago in a close game. This game is sure to be a tough contest, and we plan on leaving China on a winning note!
 
Kyle Nelson

Augie in China: A physical game

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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.

Our final day in Xi’an consisted of a morning sightseeing trip and a game. In the morning we gathered to see the 600 year old Xi’an city wall. The wall was 36 ft high and nine miles around in a rectangle shape. It was an impressive structure that had four entrances to the inner city at the North, South, East and West sides. Our guide explained that the entrances had to be altered to handle today’s foot and car traffic into the city.

We spent about an hour on the wall before heading to the markets and back four a pregame meal at the hotel.

It was an hour drive to Xi’an University, which is also called Northwest Polytechnic University. The campus was very modern looking and had a large basketball arena. Our game was played in front of about 1000 fans that there were not as loud as the previous match. The officials allowed a physical game, which was fine for us. We jumped to a big lead at half and rode the momentum for a 78-54 final to move our record to 3-0 in China.

We have a very early flight to Beijing in the morning and then play the National Developmental CBA team at their training center. This will be the second game of a three day, three game stretch and it is sure to be the best opponent thus far.

Vikes look to go 4-0 tomorrow!

Kyle Nelson

Augie in China: Back in the air

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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.

Our fourth flight of the trip brought us to the city of Xi’an in central China. The flight from Wuhan to here lasted only about an hour and a half. It seems like the flights are getting shorter and shorter. When we landed we were greeted by Mr. Chang (pronounced J-ong) our guide in Xi’an. Our first stop was lunch and then it was on to see the Terracotta warriors. The warriors were clay sculptures of an army that Emperor Qing (“Ch-in”) who reigned in about 200 B.C., had commissioned and buried along with his body so that he would have an army in the afterlife.
 
The site of the soldiers was massive. There were three different pits that we stopped at. The first was the pit where the first terracotta warrior was discovered by peasants who were digging for a well in 1974. What they happened to find was one of the greatest discoveries of this century. The other two pits that we saw were both discovered by archeologists when they began digging around the initial discovery site.
 
Terracotta warriors

The clay army was made up of infantry men, archers, horses, generals, captains and chariots. Much of the collection is either broken or undiscovered, but much of the army is exposed for this public to see. The warriors were made to be actual size, where as the horses and the chariots were scaled down to half of their true sizes. I thought that something very interesting was that not a single soldier was identical to another. Each warrior had its own face and given the massive scale of the army, that was an impressive undertaking. The terracotta warriors provided some once in a lifetime pictures because truly there is nothing else like them on this planet.
 
After seeing the warriors we went back to our hotel and then set off into downtown Xi’an on our own. We headed to the local market which was positioned right behind the bell and drum towers that have been at the center of Xi’an since the city was established. This market was one of the most lively and exciting and it sold goods that ranged from Rolex watches to squirrel on a stick.
 
Early night to rest for a game against Xi’an University tomorrow.
 
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.

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