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Monday, August 16
Well Titan fans - this will be the last installment of my blog. I sincerely hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, I truly did enjoy providing stories and updates to all of you.
We ended our trip with a day in Milan today- seeing the second biggest cathedral in the world while we were at it. Then tonight we played our last game against a select group of all-stars from a league outside of Milan. We closed out the trip with a 98-69 win in decisive fashion. We never trailed and every player found the box score. Jordan Zimmer played a great all-around game going eight for 10 with 19 points and six rebounds. Next highest scorers were John Koschnitzky with 12, myself with 10 and Doug Sexauer with 10.
We had two of the top plays I have seen as a Titan today, with the first being an alley-oop dunk from Edmond O'Callaghan on a great pass by Eliud Gonzalez. The second may have been my favorite of the trip for the following reason: due to health circumstances tonight was Tyler Bontemps' last competitive game. With a minute to go he threw down an absolutely sick (good thing in basketball speak) alley-oop from Stephen "Flakes" Rudnicki that I have no idea how he caught or finished.
Tyler is an incredible person and teammate who I am proud to say I have played alongside and couldn't be happier for him to finish like that.
To wrap up this blog in no particularly structured fashion (I may ramble, bear with me) I want to say this trip was an incredible experience for me. As a senior, today basically wraps up my last-ever summer I have to focus on being in top shape as a basketball player. It's a strange feeling for me seeing as how I have worked out almost my entire last eight years focusing on basketball.
Obviously when this time comes next year I will surely miss it, but this trip showed me the program is in good hands. The younger guys will have this team rolling on all cylinders long after us seniors are gone, but this trip brought us all more close as a unit. I can say that without this trip we wouldn't be the basketball team we are going to be in March, and we were incredibly blessed to be given this opportunity.
Today marks the end of my summer workouts as a basketball player and Titan, but also marks the beginning of our trek until next March when we want to be one of the last teams playing Division III basketball. This trip was an incredible experience for all of us and I can say that we made ourselves, our families and our university proud over here, and that to me is the biggest measure of a successful trip.
Thank you for following Titan fans and if you have any questions about the trip/games or any requests for pictures my e-mail is
sjohnson2021@gmail.com, See you in October!
Sean Johnson, #2
Sunday, August 15
Today we took a bus ride to the main city part of Lake Como, Italy for a free day. Our tour guide took us to a cable car ride halfway up a mountain and told us we had a "15-20 minute walk at a good pace uphill" which was not a joke. We hiked directly uphill to 2400 feet above the ground to a lighthouse and had a view that honestly resembled a screensaver. We had time to kill in the afternoon so Duncan, Edmond, Doug and I rented a very small four-person racecar paddle boat that can only be done justice through pictures, which I will upload later. We have dinner in downtown Lake Como at a pizza place tonight so I will update the pictures after that. Last day/game tomorrow!
Saturday, August 14
Not much to report on today- it was a travel day. We had a good team-building night last night walking up the castle again with just the guys- very fun night. Today during our drive we stopped at the Ferrari headquarters and saw cars from their first years until now, and I got to bug Jordan Zimmer a lot because I had my first Italian espresso so it was a good time for me.
Our second stop was near Parma, which is apparently the home of Parmesan cheese, where we took part in a wine/meat tasting. It was awesome - sitting on an outdoor balcony with my closest friends sampling wines and meats was never something I dreamed of doing and was a once in a lifetime experience.
We are at our hotel in Lake Como for the night now and there is a monsoon outside so it looks like we are going to play some cards in the hotel.
Hope everything is going well for everyone at home and I want to give a shoutout to Coach Feeney, Coach Stein, Matt Schick, Kevin Reed and Dan Oswald- wish you could all be here, it isn't the same without you guys.
Friday, August 13 - PART II
Well Titan fans, rest easy. We are not coming home winless due to the fact we were able to come out on top tonight with a 92-86 win. It was a very chippy game with some unusually World Cup-esque plays by the Italian squad we faced, the same one from the other night.
We started off well, mainly Jordan Zimmer shooting the ball well in the first 3 minutes, but our energy and defense were down at the end of the first quarter and we trailed, 28-21 at the end of one. Fortunately, we got a huge second quarter from Ryan Connolly (10 points in the second) and a restored defensive energy - after Zimmer's buzzer beating lay up we led 51-46 at the half.
Things got especially heated in the third quarter when I was slapped in the face by an Italian. Yes, slapped in the face. Apparently one of their older players (35 years old) took offense to me scoring on him and then hitting him in the elbow on his shot so he took his anger out on my face. I was running along the baseline and, when no refs were in sight, he just happened to casually open hand, fingers clenched connect with my left eye ball and nose region. No worries Titan fans, Coach Rose stuck up for me and my teammates did a great job of sticking up for me and the matter was resolved.
We really kept applying pressure defensively and in transition on offense and got some big plays from Brad Ghere and John Koschnitzky in the third to build up an eight-point lead. The fourth quarter was back and forth and got close down the end but Stephen "Flakes" Rudnicki had a huge hustle play and he and Travis Rosenkranz knocked down key free throws and we held on for a win. Connolly led us with 18 points, I finished with 16 and Zim had 15. Flakes actually was high rebounder with nine - as a fellow guard I know what that feels like and I am excited for him to take home high rebounder honors. Tomorrow we take off early in the morning for our next destination, but not before we stop at the Ferrari headquarters and an afternoon wine tasting- should be a great day! Thanks for reading!
Friday, August 13 - PART I
I am hoping to get two entries in today- one before the game explaining the recent things we have done and one after the game talking about how we played (and potentially how many times a 16 year old calls me for a traveling violation).
After my blog entry yesterday, we set out to our meal at Rosa Ristorante which is near the top of the mountain (yes you read that correctly). Let me explain to you what San Marino is like after a full day of exploring - San Marino is located on a mountain, around a 2000 year old castle that is accessible simply by walking up the streets.
Last night we had an incredible meal while overlooking several villages and mountains from our outdoor table. After we ate, our tour leader suggested to us that we go to the top of the castle to work off some of our food. We thought it was a joke, it was not. We ended up 25 minutes up a mountain, a half mile above the ground overlooking lights of villages in Italy for miles, such a breathtaking sight.
Unfortunately, we found out that Duncan Lawson has a serious problem with heights, unknown to him or us before. It took some coaxing and he literally crawled on all fours across a bridge but he did make it to the top - proud of you big cat. We walked back down to eat some gelato and do a little shopping before turning in for the night.
This morning we woke up for breakfast and found out that our hourlong tour of San Marino would consist of learning the history from a guide and then going back up the same mountain. This time we were able to force Dunc to face his fears head on as we explored paths in the light and took several pictures overlooking views and cliffs, one of my favorite things I have ever done in Europe, including my trip in May.
Right now we have about two hours to relax before a team meal and bus ride back to Rimini for our second game, against the same team as the first game. Check back again later for the game recap and thanks for reading!
Shoutouts: Dan Oswald, Kevin Reed, and my roommate at home Matt Schick - Wish you guys could be here, it isn't the same without you guys. Looking forward to seeing you when we get back.
Thursday, August 12
Day four was probably one of the best we have had on the trip so far. We checked out and bid "ciao" to
Montecatini Terme in the morning and began a three-hour bus ride to
Rimini, which is located on the Italian coast by the Adriatic Sea. We paid four Euros a person which gave our group 30 lawnchairs and a spot on the beach right by the water.
After a light lunch we had around four hours in the sun. We relaxed by the water, swam in the sea, laid out and played two highly competitive games of sand volleyball. Apparently no one informed me Dan Schouten and John Koschnitzky were ringers and would end up winning the game for their team.
After a highly relaxing day on the beach we got back on the bus for an hour ride to
San Marino, which I am told is some sort of independent republic and thus makes it the smallest country/city-state in the world. If Wikipedia worked here I would check that fact out, but it does not so I will take whoever said it at their word.
We have some downtime until our dinner tonight which is 15 Euros apiece, which makes me think it will be outstanding. Our hotel is connected to hundreds of shops and restaurants so I think Eliud Gonzalez and I are about to go check that out. I will be uploading pictures later and hope I can e-mail some of the view here and other things that have been going on.
Hope everyone is enjoying the blog! And a quick shoutout to all my family members who are following the blog - I miss you guys and wish you could be here!
Wednesday, August 11
To begin day three, we had a 45-minute bus ride to the town of Florence. It was a very cool morning tour with sites such as the Ponte Vecchio bridge and the replica of Michelangelo's famous statue of David. The tour did not last long so we could come back and get a pregame meal before our first European encounter.
Unfortunately, we lost the game tonight by nine points to a very solid Italian team. Our referees were two 17-year-old kids and unfortunately they did not know all of the rules beforehand. Despite our near 26 traveling violations (five by yours truly, oops), 15 missed free throws and around 20 missed shots in the lane, we still gave our best effort. It was not the start we were hoping for but we saw some good things. We play the same team on Friday so hopefully we can get some revenge.
Tomorrow is a travel day until the afternoon when we have a stop for a beach day which will be very relaxing. Updates and pictures coming tomorrow. Talk to you then!
Tuesday, August 10
We started day two of our Italian adventure this morning early with a 7:30 wake-up call for breakfast. After a few close calls with electrocuting ourselves in our room with faulty power converters, we got a good night's sleep and were up and ready to go. We left for our tour of Vatican City this morning at 8:30 and actually had to dress up fairly nice so we could look presentable for the Pope.
We started our tour at the Vatican Museum, which is essentially a museum of old Greek and Roman artifacts including tapestries, statues and paintings. The ending point of the museum tour was the Sistine Chapel which was absolutely mesmerizing. The amount of work that goes into painting that reminds of the amount of work Jordan Zimmer puts into his farming.
After the museum and the chapel we entered St. Peter's Basilica which is the place you see when the Pope goes on the balcony and gives the blessing. After my May Term trip to Eastern Europe and seeing every church, I thought I could I finally saw the world's biggest church in St. Peter's, and I feel accomplished.
We also were able to stand at the center point of the square and see the point at which the whole place was designed around. We then took a three-hour bus ride to Montecatini Terme, which is where we will stay for the night. We had our first practice tonight to get ready for the game tomorrow and the gym is very cool, and also roughly 900 degrees which made us give it the name of the Sun Dome.
We will be ready to play though, we had a great practice. We ate dinner in Montecatini tonight and now are getting ready for bed and a tour of Florence tomorrow before a pre-game meal and our first game as the 2010-2011 Illinois Wesleyan Titans. I hope everyone is enjoying the posts and the pictures coming with this one. Stay tuned for tomorrow's results!
Monday, August 9
Well, the Illinois Wesleyan basketball team has arrived in Italy. An overnight flight for all of us that ended in a tour at 9 a.m Italy time went about as well as we could have hoped. While the sights we took in were absolutely amazing, there were some tired eyes and legs by the end of the afternoon. Apparently the excitement of our trip together took advantage of our ability to sleep well on the plane. I have found out the hard way that jet-lag is very much a real thing, as is the heat.
It is HOT in Italy, and that is no joke. While it does not so much bother some people, Doug Sexauer's pale complexion is taking a beating. We started out sightseeing today at the Roman pantheon, a really terrific sight to see. We followed that up with Trevi Fountain where I did throw a coin over my head and successfully made it in the fountain (more than we can say for Luke Radliff who short-armed his and hit an innocent bystander in the head.) The most breathtaking of all the sights Rome had to offer was the Coliseum. I can't put into words the size of the structure and the amount of history it showed us, a really special opportunity for the guys. Due to the fact the Italian internet is doing me no favors in my quest to blog and share picture (this is my third time typing this) the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.
We just finished our first dinner here and it did not disappoint - salad, ham and cheese pasta before the main course of chicken and stuffed tomatoes and a cheesecake dessert. I could get used to meals like that. We are on the road early tomorrow for some travel before we reach our second destination. Keep checking in for updates Titan Fans! First game is Wednesday night!
