Gopher Basketball Getting Ready For Trip To Spain
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota men's basketball team is already getting ready for the 2015-16 season, sort of.
The Gophers will travel to Spain next week for an exhibition series. It's a chance for the team to travel together, form some team chemistry and play basketball against competition they would likely otherwise never face.
Maybe it's more important for this program and coach Richard Pitino, now entering his third season, given that it needs to find a way to jump start itself after a disappointing 2015 season. The off the court bonding and the extra sessions can only help.
"I think we've gotten a lot out of these practices. Everybody always says we need to do these foreign tours. I did it once at Louisville. The most you get out of it is the practice and then when you go to Spain it's the team bonding," Pitino said. "That is what's really big."
In Pitino's first season, the Gophers won a school-record 25 games and took home the NIT championship. Last year, they finished a disappointing 6-12 in Big Ten play, 18-15 overall and did not play in a postseason tournament.
