Where in the world is the BYU men's basketball team? If you guessed Zadar, Croatia, consider yourself quite a fan.
The Cougars are in the hometown of late BYU great Kresimir Cosic as part of a five-game European Tour that includes stops in England, Croatia and Italy."This European trip is something nice to be able to do every four years -- we are playing some very good teams," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland, who served an LDS mission in London from 1971-73. "The most important thing is it allows us to practice and build a foundation for this fall. This is the first year since I've been here that we have a core nucleus of players returning. The trip will help us develop team chemistry and get more game experience while allowing (recently returned missionaries) Eric (Nielsen) and Matt (Montague) to learn our system."
Prior to opening the trip in England with a scrimmage Tuesday and loss Wednesday to the London Towers club team, BYU was able to practice 10 times in preparation for the trip. Because of NCAA rules, only players who have played a regular season with the Cougars were eligible to participate in the summer tour. The roster includes seven returning players from the 1998-99 team that went 12-16 overall -- Todd Christensen, Nate Cooper, Bret Jepsen, Mark Michaelis, Silester Rivers, Michael Vranes and Mekeli Wesley -- as well as Nielsen and Montague, who played one season at BYU before serving missions.
"The practice sessions prior to the trip were very important. The practices allowed us to teach some new things we want to do this fall offensively and stress two areas we must improve -- defense and rebounding," said Cleveland. "The players have been working out individually all summer. Mekeli (Wesley) is playing very well right now, and Silester (Rivers) has picking up where he left off at the end of last season. Physically, Nate (Cooper) has much more spring in his legs and Todd (Christensen) and Michael (Vranes) have bulked up 15-20 pounds each. Nearly everyone is bigger and stronger."
After games in Zadar Friday and Saturday, BYU heads for Italy and contests in Udine on Aug. 24 and Milan two days later.
Technical problems at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre forced the Cougars' first game in London to evolve into an organized scrimmage, thus reducing the number of games on the tour from six to five.
BYU opens the 1999-2000 season Nov. 20 at home against UC Riverside.