The Iowa Hawkeyes‘ three-game tour of Italy and Croatia concluded with one final overseas drubbing. The Iowa women demolished the Croatia All-Stars, 109-29, in their final overseas contest.
Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder said going into the international tour that it was the life experiences and team bonding elements that would be most impactful on her group.
“For me, these trips are more about the summer extra practices that you get than over there, because the competition is so different. Sometimes it’s really, really good. You’re playing national teams. Sometimes it’s awful. They’re playing international rules. To me, the competition isn’t really what matters. It’s the practices that you get now that will help you, and you kind of get a head start on the next year.
“To me, when you go overseas, it’s about building chemistry, having fun. It’s a reward for the players that they get to actually enjoy this experience. For recruiting, it’s nice that recruits know, ‘Hey, they go on a foreign trip once every four years and it’s really fun.’ But, it’s about chemistry and memory-building for me,” Bluder said ahead of the trip.
But, the Hawkeyes also got a jumpstart on meshing for the 2023-24 women’s college basketball season, too. Now that the basketball portion of the trip is in the books, what are the lasting takeaways from the overseas tour?
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