The South Dakota State men’s basketball team gets an early start to the 2014-15 season with four games on the slate in a 10-day trip to Brazil.
“We’re a young basketball team, so we’ve got a lot to figure out before the season starts, and these four games really give us a head start to the season,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We’re going to focus on fundamentals and give the players an idea of what we expect out of them when the season starts.”
The Jackrabbits head to South America on Sunday, and waste no time in playing their first game, which pits the Jacks against Pinheiros Clube on Monday evening in São Paulo.
Pinheiros Clube plays in the A1 league, the top league in Brazil, and won its first international title in 2013, when they captured the FIBA Americas League title.
The Jackrabbits face a U22 team on Tuesday in he second game of the trip in Campinas, Brazil, a city located about 60 miles northwest of São Paulo.
Another tough test comes on Wednesday, when the Jacks face an A2 team in Jacarei, Brazil, located about 50 miles east of São Paulo near the East Coast of Brazil.
From there, the Jackrabbits travel to Rio de Janerio for the final six days for the trip, including the final game in the trip on Saturday, Aug. 9, against Botafogo, another team from the Brazilian A1 league.
Jackrabbit fans can get the inside scoop on the trip by following @SDSU_Jacks and/or @JackrabbitHoops on twitter, and can hear from the players and coaches as they share their thoughts in daily updates on GoJacks.com.
