Hawkeyes' basketball spring trip to Europe could pay off come winter

The Iowa men's basketball team was supposed to play the last of its four games in Europe today, but its scheduled opponent in Greece canceled it.

That's life on summer overseas trips for U.S. college teams. They can never be totally sure of the quality of the opponents, the officiating, or the organization. Game times can change on a whim. Gyms can be spartan, and not just in Greece.

From an ocean away, it looks like Matt Gatens added to his ballhandling responsibilities with 20 assists in the three games. Fellow sophomore-to-be Aaron Fuller may be ready to add to his role next season given his averages of 14.7 points and 12.7 rebounds.

Perhaps junior-to-be power forward Jarryd Cole will be a captain in more than title, given his 19.3 points and 11 rebounds per game on the trip.

The team's statistics from the trip can be found here.

Maybe the Hawkeyes and their coaches will be tighter after spending that time together overseas in a relaxed format. Maybe Coach Todd Lickliter experimented with a few things with his returning players and found some he can put to good use.

Tom Davis knows a few things about the benefits of overseas trips. He took his first Iowa and Drake teams on them, to name but two. College teams are allowed to take such trips once each four years. Only returning players are eligible to participate.

Before Drake's one season with Keno Davis as its head coach, the Bulldogs went on a foreign trip. They proceeded to win the Missouri Valley Conference.

"It's hard to quantify how much you can learn from a coach's point of view as well as the players' point of view," Tom Davis said recently, "not to mention the camaraderie you get with your players."

It was a long time ago, but it's easy for Davis to remember the value his Hawkeyes team got from a trip to South Korea and China in 1986. He had just gotten the Iowa job, and soon was running 10 NCAA-allowed summer practices in Iowa City before the team left for its nine-game junket.

"I learned a lot about our team," Davis said, and the reverse was true, too.

"There was a question about B.J. Armstrong," Davis said, "could he play point guard? Where do you play Brad Lohaus or Kevin Gamble?

"We were changing the team's style pretty significantly. We were going to press and run. They had been a little more deliberate kind of team."

By the time everyone got back to Iowa, many question marks had turned into distinct possible answers, and the players and coaches had a better understanding of each other. Iowa won 30 games that season.

No one's looking at 30 wins for the 2009-2010 Hawkeyes, but the extra practices and time spent together can only help the seven players who made the trip.

"There's a parallel with football teams going to bowl games," Davis said. "It's not just the game that helps the team, it's the practice time."

Davis sat in on a few of Iowa's practices before the team left for Europe. He considers that a private matter between himself and Lickliter, but does say this about Lickliter's squad:

"Numbers are not as important as people might think," Davis said. "I think they have a pretty good nucleus of key guys. . . . If two or three guys can turn it on and have great seasons, they can carry a lot of guys with them."

It may have been a good thing only seven players went on the Hawkeyes' trip. Each got plenty of experience. Anthony Tucker, who missed the second semester of his freshman season because of academic problems, played 34.3 minutes per outing last week.

"Maybe four of those seven guys will start, maybe even five," Davis said. "For them, (the trip) was a chance to get more comfortable with what they're doing."

Shooting 3-pointers was one of those comfort-zone items, apparently. Iowa fired 113 threes in the three games and made 34.

I'd say when in Rome do as the Romans do, but not even European teams shoot that many 3-pointers.

That trip, those games and those pre-trip practices will only help the Hawkeyes. Maybe the trip will be a reference point in seven or eight months when noting the team's improvement.

It's happened before. Many times before.