Miami Hurricanes excited for preseason trip to France
Before the Miami Hurricanes begin their campaign to return to the Final Four, they will take their first foreign trip since 2019.
The basketball team is headed to France for a 10-day trip, where they will play three games against French teams and enjoy what coach Jim Larrañaga said is also a “cultural and educational” trip.
“I’m just looking forward to going out of the country for my first time,” sophomore guard Christian Watson said. “Just got my passport, so I’m looking forward to using it. I’m just looking forward to bonding with the team, getting to know the guys a little bit better, just winning those three games that we have out there. (I am) taking them very serious. It’s exhibition games, but we’ve been taking them very serious.”
The NCAA allows teams to take foreign trips once every four years. The Hurricanes traveled to Italy and went to Spain in 2014.
The team will leave for France on Aug. 1. Miami will play two games in Paris against the Parisian Select team, which is made up of local professional players. The Hurricanes will also travel to Nice and play the French professional club AC Golfe Juan Vallauris, which played in the fourth tier of French basketball last season.
The three games and 10 summer practices leading up to them give Larrañaga and his staff a chance to evaluate their new team. Miami has five new players — FSU transfer Matthew Cleveland and four freshmen — and seven returning players, including forward Norchad Omier and guard Nijel Pack.
“The trip has multiple purposes,” Larrañaga said. “The first is we get everybody back for summer school and 10 days of practice to see where we are moving forward. The 10 practices are vital for evaluation, to see how our recruits are. In this day and age, there’s so much transferring and new guys. … We’re trying to figure out, OK, what direction do we need to go in?”
Larrañaga said the team has an extensive itinerary outside of their three games. He said the team will visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum. The team will also visit Normandy, the site of the Allied D-Day landings during World War II, and watch the opening scenes of the movie Saving Private Ryan, which depict the landing. They will also have a chance to relax on the beach in Nice.
“The trip to Paris is really about bonding,” Larrañaga said. “The players get to know each other. It’s 10 days, so the players will room with different roommates in each city. … So you get the know the newcomers a little bit better.”