Experience of a Lifetime: Men's Basketball in Italy

by Charlotte Brackett

It is mid-August. The sky is cloudless. There is no escaping the sun (but you're not complaining). The leaves are thinking about changing, but are still clinging to their green hue. Classes are still a few weeks away from starting and campus is quiet, save for the few fall teams that are starting their preseasons. With the 2014-15 campaign not beginning until the middle of November, most basketball programs have yet to return to campus to start training. But the Dartmouth men's basketball team is not “most programs.”

For seven consecutive summer days, the Big Green basketball team could be found in Leede Arena, practicing drills and preparing for the start of a season which was still months away. The reason for the early return was simple. This season was set to open in a slightly different way than in the past: in Italy.

As per NCAA rules, member institutions are limited to one international tour every four years in each sport. With head coach Paul Cormier entering his fourth year in his second stint at Dartmouth, it is unclear when the basketball team last went abroad, but one thing was sure: this was the year to change that.

The team was eligible to travel internationally well before the 2014-15 season, but Cormier had his reasons for waiting. “We were in rough shape when I got here,” he said. “My staff and I were trying to develop and build our program, and we had to go through a lot of growing pains. This is the first year that all of these kids here are ones we recruited, so they have gone through some growing pains in trying to get us to be a competitive basketball program. And now we are, and I thought that would be a great time to celebrate that.”

Cormier continued, explaining that it was not a snap decision to travel internationally, but it was more of a long-term plan. “We started planning four years ago when I first got the job and we started fundraising two and a half years ago,” he said. “We wanted to have all the funds in place and make it a nice trip and not just nickel-and-dime it. We wanted to be able to see the museums we wanted to see and be able to go to several different places and spend a few nights there so we could enjoy the culture of that particular area. We wanted to eat well (my team loves to eat), so we wanted to make sure it was done the right way, and I think that was definitely the case.”

To raise the necessary funds to send approximately 20 people overseas, the team ran a couple of golf events and made a lot of phone calls to past players and friends of the program. “Being part of this community was perhaps four of their best years,” he explained. “To give back is not a hard thing for them to do.”

His reasons behind this trip go a lot deeper than wanting to spend some time in a foreign country. “I think this year we are going to be more competitive. We are going to be competing for that top position, so why not use this as a time to bond together and try to get a bit of a head start and build some confidence? Maybe a trip like this, playing together, going to another country, finding it is us against the world, so to speak [could allow us] to be even more competitive than we originally may have been. It all seemed to fit.”

The rest of the basketball coaching staff was quick to agree. “It does a lot in terms of bringing the guys together,” assistant coach Jordan Watson said. “I think that in any season, it's a journey all the way through. The earlier you can get your team all on the same page, the better. We feel like, going into the season, we have a little bit of a head's up because of this trip.”

Men's Basketball at St. Peter's Basilica

One of the many places the team visited in Italy was the St. Peter's Basilica.

When planning a trip such as this, a lot of thought has to be put into it. Focusing too much on the game wouldn't allow enough time to explore and take in the history, while putting too much emphasis on being tourists might take away from the basketball side of the trip. Watson explained the train of thought when it came to solidifying a plan:

You look at it from a basketball standpoint and you look at it from an experience standpoint. On the basketball side of things, we were able to start practice about a week before we left which, going into this season, was a big benefit. It was very beneficial to have those five or six days just to get the guys back to campus, get them thinking about basketball, get them into drills. So from that side of things, it was great. Going over to Italy, the expectation was to have the guys play hard, put in some of our offensive schemes and get the juices flowing for the season. We wanted to win the games, obviously, but that wasn't really the main reason for going.

Cormier had a similar response: “Winning is important, but I really wanted the kids to, number one, learn and experience and see the works of Michelangelo and see the Statue of David,” he said. “Until you see it, you can't explain it. I wanted them to have the chance to be in a different country together and experience a different culture.”

Now that the objectives for the trip have been highlighted, next comes the most important part – location. There are approximately 200 countries in the world. Each and every one offers something different, yet equally as memorable. With so many options right in front of them, why Italy? Cormier was quick to answer: “Why not Italy?

Men's Basketball in front of the Statue of David

Among the many great pieces of art the team saw was the Statue of David.

“Why not? Who doesn't want to go to Italy? I had heard so much about it. I have been to Europe and a lot of the players have been to various parts, but there were very few of us who had been to Italy and experienced what we did.”

To ensure that the team had the best experience possible, Cormier turned to Glenn Wilkes. Of all the people you could have on your side, Glenn Wilkes should be at the top of the list. After coaching at Stetson for 36 seasons and winning 552 games, he is one of eight men (another of which is Shaquille O'Neal) who will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Nov. 23.

Since retiring, he has turned his love of travel into a business called World Class Basketball, the touring company that was put in charge of setting up the Big Green's trip overseas to a country he thought would best fit Dartmouth. He is also a close friend of Cormier and the two have known each other for nearly four decades.

“Glenn told me that, of all the places to go, [to have] the best experience culturally, basketball and team bonding-wise, Italy would be the place to go. And he was right.”

Once it was decided that Italy was the best fit, Wilkes took care of everything. He arranged for them to have a guide, named Giuseppe, while over there, who was in charge of finding competitive teams to play that were located in the areas that they wanted to visit and, according to Cormier, “it was a home run.” Giuseppe even went above and beyond what was expected of him. At one of their games, Cormier and the team were shocked to find that Giuseppe had somehow got his hands on a copy of the Men of Dartmouth to play as they warmed up. “It was a really nice surprise,” Cormier said.

Everyone soon picked up on the fact that European basketball and American basketball have their differences. As Carpenter noted, the biggest difference was the speed of the game. The shot clock was shorter and the players had less time to cross center court with the ball. “When you catch the ball in transition,” added Watson, “you have to put it down right away,” as opposed to being able to take a step under American rules. “It was fun to experience a different way to play. All in all, the ball still goes up. It's still basketball.”

During the 10 days they were there, the Green and White played five games in five different towns. “We wanted to play every other day, but we played three games in a row,” Cormier said. “It was good for us, because we play in the Ivy League, where we have to go back-to-back often.” Overall, Dartmouth went 4-1, dropping their final game of the trip to a talented team in Ferentino, just outside of Rome. But when it comes to remembering the trip, it was more what occurred off the court that stood out.

“This was such a good experience for the players and the program,” Watson said. “For me, just to be there and see them go through that was awesome. I would be a big proponent of this moving forward. I think every Dartmouth basketball player would benefit from taking a trip like this … for some people, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and, if this is the only time they are able to go, I am so glad we were able to do that and have them involved.”

Cormier recounted his favorite part of the trip. “Our fourth game was in Livorno,” he said. “It was a great game and we went swimming in the Mediterranean after that. We won the game, then went for a swim,” he said with a laugh.

One of the most awe-inspiring places the team visited was the Colosseum.

Watson's most memorable stop was in Rome. “Rome was unbelievable,” he said. “I think everyone should have to go to Rome; it should be mandated. We got to see the Pope. To get a blessing from the Pope is pretty cool. I hope that hasn't worn off yet; I hope that lasts for quite some time.”

When it comes to gauging the players' experiences on the trip, actually talking to the players themselves would be a perfect way to do so. For junior Tommy Carpenter, the forward from Greensboro, North Carolina, this was the trip of a lifetime. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “I had never left the country before and I got to go with all of my best friends and do something I love to do. It was a crazy experience.”

Sophomore Wesley Dickinson, the sophomore forward from Bergenfield, New Jersey, was in a similar boat to Carpenter. “It was amazing,” he said. “I had never left the country before, so it was an amazing opportunity for me. I had to get my passport and for that to be my first trip and to go to all of those places was awesome. No complaints.”

As Cormier and Watson pointed out, the team also understood how starting their season earlier than usual will have some positive effects on their game. “Being able to play a few games before preseason even started, we came into the season more prepared and with more confidence,” Dickinson said.

In a foreign country thousands of miles from home surrounded by those who know just about everything about each other, Carpenter was lucky to have his birthday fall on the day that the team was in Florence. After their game, the coaches gave them the night off to explore the city. That, for Carpenter, was the most memorable part of the trip. “We had a huge dinner,” he said. “It was a really good time.”

Speaking of food …

At the mention of Italian food, Carpenter got a big grin on his face. “We had a lot of pasta and red sauce everywhere,” he said, with emphasis on 'lot.' “The biggest difference is that there is never just one plate of food. You would think it was over and they would just keep bringing more and more.”

When asked if authentic Italian food differs from what we call Italian food over here, Watson said the difference was immediately apparent. “People talking about Italian food and how good it is over there and you don't really understand until you go and try it. Even the experience of eating over there is different and it was fun to see our guys go through that process. Each meal was a lot of fun.”

Cormier had much the same reaction when the topic was brought up. “In America, a night out will be dinner and a movie,” he said. “In Italy, you go out to dinner and that's the event. You might go to dinner at 7 and, by the time you leave, it's 11. You're not rushing through dessert to get to a movie; that's unheard of. Believe it or not, by the time dessert came, I was stuffed.”

The players apparently had more room for dessert than the coaching staff. “There was a lot of gelato,” Dickinson said. “The food was amazing. There was a lot of it. Everyone was still full from the day before.”

After spending 10 days in a foreign country, surely the team picked up some Italian words, right? “Absolutely not,” laughed Cormier, “except 'grazie'.”

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