Tag Archives: Brazil

Augie: Relaxing pregame

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GoofyThe Augustana basketball teams are heading to Brazil this week and will be blogging on the trip. Chaney Tambling is blogging for the women’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Mark Roth is blogging for the men’s team.

Well we’ve had a great couple of days here in Rio. After a fabulous buffet dinner last night in our hotel, today we have a relaxing day. The sun is out and we have a game so we’ll be hanging out by the pool, getting nice tans, and preparing to get a win.

The game is at about 3:00 p.m., so we’ll spend the day conserving energy and after the game we will go to dinner and walk down to shops and places on the beach. Next time I write hopefully we’ll be celebrating two wins here in Brazil!!

Augie: Men’s team takes the floor

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Alex Dziagwa DunkThe Augustana basketball teams are in Brazil this week and are blogging on the trip. Mark Roth is blogging for the men’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Chaney Tambling is blogging for the women’s team.

What an unbelievable time for the Augustana basketball program. After about a 10-hour flight from Chicago to São Paulo we made it in one piece. Dan Jurgutis overcame his anxiety of long plane rides and Tayvian Johnson took the first flight of his life.

On our way to the hotel in Jundiai we got caught up in traffic in São Paulo. With 15 million people in the city of São Paulo we were able to see how busy the city can be. Just by looking out of the bus we could see the change in culture between the United States and Brazil. The graffiti in Brazil seems to turn into art on the pavement surfaces and there are many outdoor soccer complexes. We are used to seeing basketball courts or baseball fields built for kids to play on. Here it is clear the soccer is the main sport of Brazil.

After a brief session at the hotel pool in our Speedos, we took off for our first game. It was a great feeling to be playing with each other after spending so much time competing with each other in practices and open gyms. We played in front of a small crowd in an “any place, any time” style of game. The crowd came to life on a few dunks by Alex Dziagwa (above) and we were able to play as a team very well. (Augustana won 107-71.)

After the game, we ate a pizza restaurant; this was no American pizza however. With a wide arrange of toppings from potatoes and egg to dessert pizzas with coconut and ice cream, the waiters was bringing different pizzas to our table all night. They must have gotten the Augie basketball message of “stay together, keep coming” (with pizza that is)! We are going to get some rest and then get back after it tomorrow!

Augie: A little schedule change

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The Augustana basketball teams are in Brazil this week and are blogging on the trip. Chaney Tambling is blogging for the women’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Brandon Motzel is blogging for the men’s team.

After a great first night here in Rio we woke up to a wonderful breakfast in our hotel. Breakfast proved to be very delicious and soon after we took a bus and a tour guide to Sugar Loaf Mountain.

We were supposed to be going to see the Christ the Redeemer statue today, but because of the fog around the top of the statue, the guides and others here in Rio decided to switch the schedule around, which isn’t unlike true Brazilian nature.

The Sugar Loaf Mountain was a beautiful sight. We took two cable car trips up to two different parts of the mountains, one Urca and one Sugar Loaf. While there we got to see various wildlife including very small monkeys and birds. It is a beautiful day and we now set out to the beach for an afternoon of fun in the sand and water!

Augie: Men ready to board

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TamblingThe Augustana basketball teams are heading to Brazil this week and will be blogging on the trip. Brandon Motzel is blogging for the men’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Chaney Tambling is blogging for the women’s team.

Well here we are, sitting in the airport about to board the plane. Everyone drove in safely and on time, coming from around Chicago and the Quad Cities. Well everyone except Jake Norcia. He ended up at the wrong terminal, but eventually he found his way through the airport and met up with us. We made it through security without issue thankfully and now were listening to music, eating at the food court, and riding the moving sidewalks trying to pass the time. Nervous and excited butterflies in all of our stomachs, we all want to touch down in São Paulo as soon as possible and get this trip started!

As excited and amped up as we are, we will need to sleep on the plane because we will start this trip with games on three consecutive nights. While talking with former Viking Bryant Voiles this weekend he told us that it would be tough to sleep with all the movies, shows, and games. He said enjoy fun times with everyone on the plane and eventually we would fall asleep.

We’re about to leave from gate C16! By Mark Roth’s next blog we will have a full day in Brazil and a game under our belts.

Augie: Time on the beach

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The Augustana basketball teams are heading to Brazil this week and will be blogging on the trip. Chaney Tambling is blogging for the women’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Brandon Motzel is blogging for the men’s team.

After getting some much needed sleep, the team set out to find a restaurant for lunch. After eating our first meal, we walked about 5 minutes to the beach. Although it is cloudy and overcast, we decided that there wasn’t a better time to start playing in the water than now.

The beach wasn’t crowded which gave us the perfect opportunity to take lots of pictures and have a little fun while doing it. Now we are back in our hotel and plan on checking out the pool before heading to our first game at 7 p.m.