Not a bad way to go through college – and life. As a college basketball player. Especially when you’re on your every-four-years-permitted international trip.
Like the one the Northern Kentucky University Norse are on right now. Eleven days in Italy – Rome, Florence and Naples – all expenses paid. NKU might not have the big NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) bucks the big schools have for athletes right now. But for a college kid, this’ll do.
Like the guided tour of the Colosseum where earlier athletes competed for – well, for the right to come back and compete again. That’s where the Norse were the other day, right where the gladiators got it on. No losers’ bracket for those guys.
But for the NKU athletes, who not only get to mix some hoops with history here, it’s more about getting out and seeing the world. Although one of the side benefits for an NKU team with a retooled roster, there’s additional out-of-season summer practice time at home to prep for a trip that has way more sightseeing than basketball.
As it should be, we guess, for an NKU team that gave top-seeded Houston all the Cougars could handle in the NCAA Tournament back in March.
So who cares if the sightseeing-to-basketball ratio on this trip looks to be about 5-to-1. By our count looking at the itinerary, there are two games against local teams in that other Florence, in between a couple of workouts and the rest of the time they were checking out the Roman Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, Trevi Fountain or maybe the Spanish Steps. Then in Florence on Monday, between stops at the Villa Cerna for lunch and the Accademia Gallery, they get their first game against a local team followed by another on Wednesday and then it’s on to Naples where they’ll get to see what’s left of nearby Pompei.
Works for us. UK went to Canada and played a bunch of tournament games. Just what they needed. But we bet some of the Wildcats would trade trips if you asked them.
• Lloyd’s Kyle Niederman makes it clear with the improvements in sports facilities at Lloyd Memorial, a school where they have three gyms in one location, that’s all part of the plan “where we put students first,” the football coach says. And across the board here in Northern Kentucky, you see that with four new artificial football turf installations this summer. Two are brand new – Ludlow and Lloyd – and two replacements – Beechwood and Covington Catholic.
And that’s not counting the new baseball turf fields installed in recent years. But it’s not without a twinge that Niederman notes that when he’s out running with his dog through the park, he “almost never sees kids out playing ball on their own. You see lots of driveways with basketball goals but how often do you see kids using them?”
Have they become a bit too dependent on adults to set up their games and practices that pickup play just for kids is a thing of the past? Maybe. Another reason why the schools must get this right. For a lot of kids, that’s all they have.
We do like the way Kyle answers any questions about how he’s doing with this team. “I’ll tell you in five years,” he says. He’ll have a much better idea then when he sees where they are and what they’re doing.
The total cost is about $1,000 for the equipment – the drone itself is not much bigger than 14-15 inches square, the batteries that last just under a half-hour of flight time that cost $80 apiece and the screen and controller. You’d be amazed at how, from hovering 40 feet above a huddle, you can get a full field view. And if the operator knows what he’s doing, you can get from here to there in a hurry, faster than a coach or player can.
Now the secret here is having a skilled operator, ideally a player’s grandparent who wishes to remain in the background, who knows what the coaches want and need and how to make that happen. And because David Cecil Memorial Stadium is in the flight path for Lunken Airport, the drone also has to be registered with the FAA. But the chance to review spacing, timing and technique makes it worth it as an invaluable tool for practice video no longer limited to the colleges and pros.
• Just a quick comment on the Reds from this old high school baseball coach. Or maybe it’s better directed at the way the media covers the team – and one player — so very young, so very gifted. Like the other night when the Reds hit three home runs to start the game only to get beat by the last-place Washington Nationals when they went 0-for-forever with runners in scoring position.
And what was the big early story in the town’s lone newspaper? How no one could hit a home run with the angle of elevation that Elly de la Cruz did as we see the supremely talented 20-year-old continually take belt-high fastballs for strikes and strike out on breaking balls in the dirt in front of the plate while he ends up twisted around looking into the stands.
If only someone could convince Elly that people like me would pay good money – and for a sportswriter, that’s a heck of a thing to say – to watch Elly do these things on the baseball field in this order. First, run. Second, throw. Third, catch it. Fourth, hit it.
That’s the order of Elly’s spectacular gifts for me – run, throw, catch and hit. Bunt it once in a while. Work on becoming a contact hitter now that you’re the leadoff guy. With your natural power, the long balls will come. Just no swinging from your shoe tops. Or guessing where the next pitch will be.
With your reflexes, it’s “see the ball, hit the ball.” And then run like heck. You can’t steal first no matter how fast you are. You must make contact.
That’s what the Reds need. They need you on base. Much easier to score a runner on base if that runner is Elly de la Cruz.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @dweber3440.