STATESBORO – Passports are in hand, movies are downloaded to various devices and bags are packed as the Georgia Southern men's basketball team prepares to travel to Spain at the end of the month.
The Eagles will play three games over a seven-day period in Spain. GS starts the trip in Madrid, where they play one contest before moving on to a five-night stay in Barcelona, where two contests are on the schedule. Outside the on-court activities, the Eagles are scheduled for a number of tourist opportunities, including a bike Tour of Madrid, practice at Real Madrid basketball facilities, tour of Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid Soccer Stadium), tour of Barcelona, tour of the Sagrada Familia, a boat cruise and BBQ and tickets to the Barcelona vs. Arsenal soccer match.
"It's going to be a great experience, and we're going to fully immerse ourselves into going to Spain," said head coach
Mark Byington. "We've had teachers come over and teach us Spanish and some of the culture so we're excited. The basketball part of it has been great, but ultimately, it's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our guys."
It will be the second foreign tour for redshirt senior
Ike Smith, who visited Costa Rica as a freshman.
"We played in Costa Rica my freshman year, and it was a very fun experience so I'm excited and looking forward to playing in Spain," said Smith. "I'm going to try to step out of my comfort zone and start conversations with people and try to enjoy it while I can."
The Eagles are set to return 68 percent of their scoring and 69 percent of their rebounding in 2019-20. Smith, who received a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA to compete this season, enters the year ranked 13th on the school's career Division I scoring list. He needs 21 points and eight rebounds to become the fifth Eagle with 1,500 career points and 500 rebounds, joining Jeff Sanders (1,861 pts, 893 reb), Kevin Anderson (1,843 pts, 986 reb), Matt Simpkins (1,684 pts, 642 reb) and Louis Graham (1,581 pts, 908 reb).
Quan Jackson, an All-Sun Belt selection a season ago, is back and enters his junior campaign 309 points shy of 1,000.
David Viti and
Will Dillard will make their Eagle debuts as redshirt freshmen, while
Trevion Lamar (Savannah, Ga./Jenkins/Northern Oklahoma),
Mackenzie McFatten (Douglas, Ga./Coffee) and
Jalen Cincore (Bartlett, Tenn./Bartlett) signed National Letters of Intent to attend Georgia Southern last fall and will be eligible to compete this year. The Eagles also added 6-foot-9 walk-on
Ralueke Orizu (Atlanta, Ga./South Cobb), who transferred from Eastern Washington. Orizu played his freshman season at Savannah State.
The 2019-20 schedule is nearing completion. The Eagles renewed a long-time series with local rival Mercer last season, and the Bears are set to visit Hanner Fieldhouse, along with Radford, which shared the Big South regular-season title. Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina will visit Statesboro for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign as part of home-and-home Sun Belt series as the conference schedule expands to 20 games for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign.
The season ticket renewal deadline is Sunday, September 15, 2019, and season tickets not renewed and paid in full by the renewal deadline will be released to the general public. Season tickets for the 2019-20 season start at $100 for general admission seating and $140 for reserved seats. Tickets can be purchased at GSEagles.com/tickets.
