Denver men’s basketball left Sunday for France for a four-game set. LetsGoDU will have exclusive player coverage of the trip. Head Coach Jeff Wulbrun sees the trip as a reward for his team and an opportunity for players to gain valuable practice and playing time in France against four experienced teams. More importantly, Wulbrun sees this as an opportunity to build team chemistry which is sure to benefit the team during the 2022-23 season. Denver is also integrating eight new players onto the squad.
Global Sports and Events organizes college trips to Europe and aims to provide both a cultural experience as well as a playing experience for student-athletes. Colleges are allowed to play oversees once every four years but trip costs restrict many programs from taking advantage of this opportunity. Wulbrun and DU deputy athletic director Bob Willis raised 100% of the funds through donors to pay for this trip.
Below is the schedule for the University of Denver ten-day trip from August 8th through August 17th.
Paris: Four nights, August 8-12th
○ Highlights:
-Palace of Versailles
-Normandy
-Eiffel Tower
-Seine river cruise
Day 3: 7:00 PM – Game vs. Paris All-Stars
Lyon: Two nights, August 12-14th, 2022
○ Highlights:
-Tour Lyon Cathedral
Day 5: 7:30 PM – West Lyon Basketball (Ouest Lyonnaise)
Nice: Three nights, August 14-17th, 2022
○ Highlights
-Tour Monaco/Monte Carlo
Day 8: 7:00 PM – Game vs Cote de Azur Select
Day 9: 7:00 PM – Game vs Cote de Azur Select
LetsGoDU will be posting trip highlights from DU players starting this week.
Photo: Courtesy University of Denver Athletics
Dunker loves these trips. Teams grow immensely. Highlight for kids will be the French Riviera beach babes.
Tremendous opportunity for team development vs pro competition, and 10 days in France that they will never forget, especially for the guys who haven’t been to Europe.
Also a cool experience for the families of the players who live in Europe, as there are six overseas players on the DU roster, representing Germany, Lithuania, Finland, Israel, Serbia and Spain.
I don’t know the quality of the ‘Paris All-Stars’ or the ‘Cote Azure’ selects, but DU might be able to hang with Ouest Lyon of the French 3rd Division.
I wish DU hockey would go on one of these trips someday, as I think they would be able to compete quite well with the top pro hockey league teams in UK, Norway, France, and Italy, and also well against second division teams in Sweden, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. Euro hockey teams typically start their training camps in late August/Early September so it’s probably tricky from a logistic standpoint with the start of DU school year…