Bonding And Building In Portugal
July 27, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
For Chris Jans, overseas trip means so much more than Bulldogs’ results.
Late Thursday evening, the Mississippi State men's basketball team will be on an airplane headed towards Portugal. An overseas tour awaits with three games currently scheduled.
Back in the States, there'll surely be many in the MSU family wanting to know how the Bulldogs are faring over the next 10 days. However, onsite in Portugal, there'll be a head coach knowing that this trip is about so much more than final scores for his group.
"It's just about getting some game experience [for the guys]," Chris Jans said. "The guys will want to play well, and they'll want to win the games. For me, the benefits are…the camaraderie, the cultural experiences, the bonding that should go on over there and the practices [that have led up to] the actual tour. That's more important than even the games."
Indeed, this journey is an opportunity for this season's MSU team to come together as one. That process started earlier this summer in Starkville, however Portugal offers benefits the homefront doesn't.
What exactly? A check-in with freshman guard Josh Hubbard should illustrate the point.
When asked if he knew much about Portugal ahead of the trip, Hubbard was quick to respond.
"Not at all," Hubbard said.
He's not alone. In foreign territory, the Bulldogs more than ever will have the chance to lean on each other and simply be with each other – from long plane rides to hotel stays to the shared experience of discovering new places and things together.
"It'll be a great bonding time for the team," Hubbard said. "It's going to be a great experience."
State will develop closer ties away from the court throughout the trip as they visit various historic sites in the cities of Lisbon and Porto. They'll get the chance to jell on it in games against the Lisbon All-Stars (July 29 at 10:30 a.m. CT), Portugal All-Stars (July 30 at 10:30 a.m. CT) and the Basketball Association of Porto (August 2 at 1 p.m. CT).
None of that is to even mention the personal value that is gained from simply seeing a different part of the world.
"I've been fortunate enough to go on a number of foreign tours, and there's so much growth that comes, not only from the basketball aspect, but also through the cultural experience," Jans said. "Getting to visit another country and opening our eyes to other parts of the world will be a good experience for us. Hopefully, it will improve the camaraderie of our team and bring us closer together."
It's certainly the main goals in upcoming days for the Dawgs – having individual development and building an even greater unity as a group. No scoreboard in Portugal or anywhere else can accurately quantify those things, but they're precisely what Jans will ultimately measure this adventure by.
"I've been doing this long enough to know whatever the results are in Portugal have no bearing on what kind of season we are going to have in November and December," Jans said.
But as for all the growth that takes place in Europe, that will absolutely be a boon for Jans and his Bulldogs come tip time in the fall.