Northwestern University Athletics
2010 Italian Tour Player Blog
9/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sept. 6, 2010
Hello Wildcat fans,
Coach Carmody decided to let us sleep in a little bit today. We had late check out from the hotel. Most of us took full advantage of the sleep and decided to skip breakfast. It was supposedly the right decision because I heard the spread wasn't even close to what the other ones have been like. So we caught up on some sleep and recovered from the previous nights overtime thriller in preparation for our game tonight.
Around noon we packed up the bus and headed to the city of Pavila. The bus ride was rather short and we arrived in Pavila in around an hour or so. We hopped off the bus and went into the city square where there was a market set up. It was Sunday so most of the shops were closed. The marketplace was filled with regional goods and clothing. That particular reason is known for their grains so I made sure to pick up some Italian-made pasta from one of the vendors. This pasta may be a little better than Barilla.
For a couple of hours we browsed around and got a little hungry. The team sat down for our pre-game meal. The food was terrific as usual and I must say I would rate that meal in my top five of the trip. After the meal we returned to the bus and drove a half hour to the arena. Typical European arena but it seemed to seat a nice amount of people.
We went through the usual warmups and it was time to leave Italy undefeated and accomplish our goal we set out from the beginning of the trip. The energy level was down from our previous game and we came out a bit sluggish with a couple early turnovers. We managed to muster an early lead and we never trailed. JerShon Cobb came out hot with a quick 8 points to help jumpstart the team. We continued to increase our lead throughout the first half with an energy boost from Ivan Pelusic off the bench. We lead by ten going into the half, 38-28.
The second half started out similar to the first and they trimmed our lead to one point. Then we picked up the defense and stifled them and went on a monster run to blow the game wide open. Drew Crawford found a groove and had a great second half, finishing with a game-high 21 points. The lead grew to 22 and we were on our way to a 4-0 record. Great win and great way to finish up our trip. Now it's off to Lake Como for our final days in Italy. We will definitely take advantage of these days to enjoy each other's company. Time to kick back and relax and enjoy beautiful Lake Como.
In conclusion, I would like to thank everyone who made this amazing trip possible for us. I think it will be very helpful for our team in the upcoming season. I would also like to say hi to my mom and everyone else in my family. I love and miss you all. Let's sell out every home game this year! Thanks for all the support.
GO CATS!
