Purdue redshirt freshmen due to get some added experience this month
More ($): Redshirt freshmen's potential roles
In advance of a Purdue season in which both will debut, Boilermaker redshirt freshmen Aaron Wheeler and Sasha Stefanovic will travel to Italy next week as part of the USA East Coast team that annually makes an overseas exhibition trip.
USA East Coast will open training camp in New York City Monday, then arrive in Venice on Thursday.
Friday, it'll play the first of its four games in the International Tournament, an event that will put the Americans up against national B teams from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands — perhaps some of center Matt Haarms' contemporaries — and the local Italian club team Vicenza Select Italy.
The team is slated to be coached by Hall-of-Famer Larry Brown for the second year in row.
This will be the 13th such trip organized by Guy Rancourt, the head coach at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa.
"When we started this, it was really just about getting guys an experience," Rancourt said. "Since these players play through multiple semesters, they never really have a chance to do an exchange program or anything like that where they'd spend a semester abroad. I really just wanted to give basketball players a chance to see other countries.
"As it evolved, it just got stronger and stronger and more people started having interest in it. It became more competitive to where ... we started representing the U.S. in international tournaments."
Former Boilermaker guards Lewis Jackson and Anthony Johnson were part of Rancourt-organized trips in the past.
Continue reading below
Now, Wheeler and Stefanovic are part of a 12-man roster that also includes players from Kansas, SMU, South Carolina and Colorado, among others.
Some notable participants for the U.S. delegation on past trips: West Virginia's Jevon Carter, Notre Dame's Martinas Geben and V.J. Beachem, Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff and Louisville's Russ Smith, among many others.
The 2018 team is built largely with underclassmen and transfer players who've not played college games in a year, and thus could use some experience.
In the case of the two Boilermakers, they've played in exhibitions — including last summer's World University Games — but have yet to put on a Purdue uniform in an official capacity.
"I'm not as worried about the résumé as I am the fit and what we need," Rancourt said. "When I get feedback about character and whatever their strengths are — Sasha's ability to shoot the ball and score and (Wheeler's) versatility and athleticism and length — that's the kind of conversations we have: What can someone bring to the table to help us be successful as we're trying to give them that cultural experience?"
Membership Info: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?
Follow GoldandBlack.com: Twitter | Facebook
More: Gold and Black Illustrated/Gold and Black Express | Subscribe to our podcast
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2018. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.