:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58461761/910336888.jpg.0.jpg)
Maryland men’s basketball will take a nine-day tour through Italy this August to prepare for the 2018-19 season, The Baltimore Sun reported on Thursday.
The school hasn’t confirmed the trip yet, but it’s reported to include stops in Rome, Florence, Venice and Como, though neither dates nor opponents have been finalized.
College teams are allowed to take foreign trips once every four years. The Terps last left the country in 2013, when they played three exhibition games in the Bahamas. This trip should give Maryland more time to implement its playbook and build some chemistry, as the tours also give coaches a coveted 10 days of practice to prepare.
Head coach Mark Turgeon has mentioned multiple times this season how he felt the Terps were behind other teams in implementing the playbook, namely Butler and Purdue who both took summer tours in 2017.
Maryland will lose three seniors to graduation, and possibly more players to the draft, while bringing in at least a class of three top-100 recruits (who will be with the team for the trip). By the time the regular season rolls around, the newest set of Terps should be well acquainted.
In other news
Though it was a sloppy game, women’s basketball hung on to beat Northwestern on Thursday for its third straight win.
Former Terp Greivis Vasquez will be back in town this weekend when men’s basketball takes on No. 6 Michigan State and will host a notebook drive before the game.
Three-time Tewaaraton Award winner Taylor Cummings will return to her former high school as an assistant coach, with former assistant Nancy Love being elevated to interim head coach.
Gymnastics fell to Iowa in a nationally-televised meet on Thursday, and are now 4-3 overall and 1-2 in conference meets.
Men’s lacrosse is the preseason No. 1 team in the country as the defending national champions, and senior midfielder Connor Kelly earned another preseason honor. Kelly was one of 11 players named to the watch list for the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s 2018 Player of the Year award.