Wright State’s Italy trip
Saturday: Leave for Rome
Monday: Vatican City Tour
Wednesday: Game 1 vs. Virtus Siena in Florence
Thursday: Game 2 vs. Florence Basket in Florence
Aug. 26: Pisa tour
Aug. 27: Game 3 vs. Fulgor Forli in Venice; Arrive in Venice
Aug. 28: Depart for Lake Como
Aug. 29: Game 4 vs. Pallacanestro San Maruno in Lake Como
Aug. 30: Depart Milan for trip home
FAIRBORN — In the weeks leading up to his basketball team’s trip to Italy, Wright State coach Billy Donlon stressed a plan of attack with his assistant coaches:
While the Raiders are in Italy, they will full-court press.
Donlon, though, wasn’t talking about their on-court strategy, he was referring to their plans for traversing the country.
“I told my assistants when we got off the road recruiting in July: ‘The 10 days we’re here practicing (for Italy) are going to be really hard on the players. They are going to have to work like they never have before. But once we get on that airplane Saturday, we’ll coach the (four) games over there, but the minute the game is over and we shower, there won’t be any talk about that game.’
“This trip is about experiencing the culture, it’s not about basketball. Back here we always talk how there are things bigger than basketball and I think one of the worst things you can do as a coach on a trip like this is focus only on basketball. Your kids are smart and they’ll know that’s all you’re about.”
The WSU team flies out of Cincinnati on Saturday for a 10-day trip to Italy that will include games against four teams (two against first- and second-division pro teams), stops in Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Lake Cuomo and Milan and visits to everything from the Vatican to the Coliseum.
To nurture the cultural enhancement of his players — only two have been abroad — Donlon is doing several things:
• He’s been having someone visit the team to teach the players words and phrases in Italian. “You’ve got to have great respect for the country you’re in, and to show that we want to attempt to speak Italian with the people,” Donlon said. “They’ll help us and you bond like that.”
• The Raiders will have an Italian guide their entire trip.
• Donlon is encouraging his guys to experience things on their own: “In Venice I want them to go on a true gondola taxi. I want them to listen to the banter. You don’t have to understand it. You get the feel. It reminds me of being in a Chicago barbershop. I want them to experience Venice like the people there do.”
The way Donlon sees it: “There are things you can learn in the classroom and things you can experience by doing. In my opinion, our guys are going to get a quarter’s-worth of classroom education in 10 days immersed in Italy.”
Donlon has been to Italy four times as a coach and a player, including a 30-day tryout with Bennetton Treviso, the Italian Series A League team that was coached by Mike D’Antoni, now with the New York Knicks.
This time he’s visiting with his dad at his side. Bill Donlon, a former college and high school coach, is now an administrator at an Illinois high school. He’s also a devout Catholic, and the only way Billy could get his dad to come along was promise the Vatican tour.
His dad’s school already is back in session and Bill prides himself in not taking days off — something he managed for 14 straight years. That string was set aside when he took time off to help care for his wife, Maryann — and Billy’s beloved mom — who was battling cancer.
Maryann died last Sept. 3.
As father and son approach the anniversary, Billy’s glad he’s doing so with his dad in Italy, where they’ll be roommates — an experience they haven’t had since Billy was a kid at camp.
“When you lose a parent, your typical reaction, I think, is you want to make a greater connection with the parent you have,” Billy said. “That’s why I flew my dad down to Orlando for our last couple of days recruiting there. We just hung out together and watched games.”
Bill Donlon’s parents came to the United States from Ireland through Ellis Island. In 2001, when Billy was a young assistant coach at Saint Peter’s, he was contacted by former Richmond coach Bill Dooley, who was in Ireland helping put together the Irish national team.
A leniency in the rules helped Irish-American kids get Irish passports to play for Ireland in the European Cup. Donlon became the team’s point guard and along with playing in country, he toured through Cyprus, Germany, Iceland and Finland.
Today, he has his Irish No. 5 jersey — autographed by his teammates — framed and hanging on the wall of his WSU office.
From Ireland, Donlon’s agent lined up a tryout with Bennetton, where he was hoping to be Tyus Edney’s back-up at point guard.
“I didn’t make it. I didn’t quite fit the bill and I’ve got to say Coach D’Antoni made the right decision,” Donlon admitted.
D’Antoni did help Donlon land a pro job in France and that led to another stint in Germany.
Donlon said he got something else from D’Antoni: “A lot of the offense we use now is what I learned from him 10 years ago.”
After that tryout, Donlon returned to Italy a couple of times just to take in the sights of the country he loves.
“Of the nine days we’re really there this time, we’re doing legitimate educational tours on seven and I’m giving the guys two days to experience the country on their own,” he said. “I think that’s fair and they’ll get something out of this.”
A couple of days before the trip, freshman guard Reggie Arceneaux — from New Orleans by way of Charlotte — was asked what he knew about Italians.
“Well,” he said racking his brain, “they eat a lot of spaghetti and they drink a lot of wine ... and there’s a lot of Roman Catholics.”
And with a pause, then a big smile, he added: “And, oh yeah, there’s Italian girls ... Italian girls are real pretty.”
Looks like forgetting those games once the final buzzer sounds won’t be that tough, after all.
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