Duke Blue Devils and 10 Other College Hoops Teams Taking Overseas Trips

Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils are getting ready to leave for a whirlwind international adventure where they are scheduled to play a series of exhibitions (The Friendship Games) in China and the United Arab Emirates.

The Blue Devils will first play at Duke’s new extension campus in Kunshan against the Chinese national team. One day later, the same squads will square off at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. They will play one more time at Beijing’s MasterCard Center, the same venue where Coach K led the U.S. 2008 Olympic team to a gold medal.

The final stop of the series will take the Blue Devils to Dubai to play against the UAE national team on August 25.

The value of this kind of trip is not just in having the opportunity to take your team around the globe.

Between fighting massive jet lag and an itinerary that will keep the team continually on the move, this will be a perfect opportunity for Krzyzewski to learn some important details about his 2011-12 squad.

With losing Kyrie Irving, Nolan Smith, and Kyle Singler to the NBA Draft, Coach K will need to reconstruct his team in order to compete at the level to which the Cameron Crazies are accustomed.

The Blue Devils have been able to, according to NCAA guidelines, practice 10 times prior to this excursion.

Here's a list of 10 other schools who are taking similar trips and who will receive similar benefits.

With which team would you like to be traveling?...I am officially volunteering to accompany and cover any future overseas trip of these or other teams.

NOTE: These are not the only teams going overseas. If you have info on other teams' trips, post it so we can know about what else is going on.

Northern Iowa

The University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team just completed a trip to Brazil.

The Panthers played five games over a seven-day stretch and took home a victory in each of the five contests.

Nice momentum-builder going into the 2011-12 season.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs are playing a five-game tour of the Netherlands starting in Amsterdam.

Coach Rick Stansbury is getting a good look at a pair of newcomers: Arnett Moultrie, a 6'11" transfer from UTEP, and highly touted freshman Rodney Hood.

Creighton

Creighton men's basketball team is taking its first foreign trip since 2007. According to NCAA guidelines, a team can only go every four years. 

Coach Greg McDermott's Bluejays are headed to the Bahamas for four exhibition games.

Hopefully, they make it to the beach at least once. Wow!

Illinois and West Virginia

West Virginia and Illinois will be traveling together to Italy.

The two teams will actually play against each other in front of the troops at the Aviano Air Force Base, located just outside of Venice.

After this scrimmage, both teams will split apart and conduct their own trips with other exhibition games in Rome, Florence and Sicily.

USC

Kevin O'Neil and the USC Trojans will, like Northern Iowa, be making a trip to Brazil.

They will start their series of games in Sao Paolo and then finish up in Rio.

The Trojans, coming off of a 19-15 season in 2010-11, have eight players from last year's squad but only two returning starters.

BYU

The BYU Cougars are on their way to Greece for a five-game tour in Athens and Platanias.

After the departures of Jimmer Fredette and others, the trip will give coach Dave Rose a chance to evaluate redshirt freshman Anson Winder and junior Craig Cusick in the backcourt.

Brandon Davies, suspended last season for an honor code violation, has not been reinstated to the team yet and is not on this trip.

Cal

Mike Montgomery and his Bears are going to be playing five games in 10 days against teams in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Montgomery will especially check out two new players to the program, guard Justin Cobbs and forward David Kravish, along with inexperienced forward Robert Thurman.

Stanford

Cardinal head coach Johnny Dawkins has set up the most challenging trip in terms of on-court competition.

Stanford will face 30-time Spanish pro league champion Real Madrid along with FC Barcelona, which beat the Los Angeles Lakers last October.

Baylor

Scott Drew is seeing what some of his new players can do as he has taken his Baylor Bears north of the border to play a series of exhibition games in Toronto.

Unfortunately, five-star recruit Quincy Miller is still awaiting final paperwork to clear NCAA Clearinghouse and did not travel with the team to Canada.