The George Washington University Department of Athletics and Recreation announced today that the men’s basketball team will travel to Italy from August 15-26, 2012 to serve as ambassadors of the sport of basketball and to play five games against Italian professional competition.
According to the official site of the George Washington Colonials, from August 19-21 the team will be in Florence. Nearby Siena will be toured in a day-trip on August 20, when GW will play its second game of the tour. The following day, on August 21, a trip to see one of the world’s best-known sights in the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in store, and the Colonials will play their third game in Italy that night
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these players to travel to historic Italy with their teammates,” said Coach Mike Lonergan to the official site of George Washington Colonials. “The life experience of foreign travel and immersion in another culture that our players will gain from this trip is an invaluable part of the learning process that GW seeks to provide, and the trip itself will significantly aid the critical process of team bonding by giving our returning players an early opportunity to gel with each other and our strong incoming group of freshmen.”
This will be GW men’s basketball’s first international trip since a visit to Australia in the summer of 2005.