MBB @ Ga State

[bcoach]

Fox has a team trip to Europe planned for the summer...to Italy and Slovenia. That's a marvelous recruitment tool and a marvelous chemistry-building tool, but he's got his work cut out for him before any travel plans are finalized. He needs to make certain he has the right group of players and the right coaches in place to form next years team. There's no room for dead weight beginning next weekend and going forward.

Fox needs meet one-on-one with each player who is eligible to return. He also needs to meet one-on-one with each assistant coach. He has more than one returning scholarship player that has failed to show Division I capability. I'm of the opinion that he may also have a coach or two whose skills are also sub-par. Cutting a few folks won't be easy; but he'd better bite the bullet now and fix it. He worked at DC with McKillop long enough to know how to give players and coaches an honest appraisal and help them move along to a place where they have a better chance to be successful.

Fox's team is dangerously near the so-called "death spiral." Significant change is required. It has to start with Coach Fox; and it has to start pronto.

How does a trip like that get paid for?

The NCAA allows collegiate teams to go on summer trips like this once every four years. There are tour companies that specialize in making most of the travel, lodging, meal, sightseeing excursion, team practice, exhibition game schedules and other necessary arrangements. In a case like with Coach Fox, he's been on several tours like this with Davidson, so he knows where to turn to get sponsorship assistance and he's developed friendships with English-speaking families in Italy who'll take his team in and treat them just like family. They live like the locals live and eat where the locals eat.

One of the real basketball advantages is that teams going on these junkets get ten extra days of practice sanctioned by the NCAA before they depart from stateside. That provides a real opportunity to blend freshmen, transfers and new coaches into the fold; get to participate in an exceptional cultural opportunity and get to play against tough, international competition.

Cool