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Proxima parada, Espana!

Princeton departs for Spain tomorrow evening, where they'll be playing four games against top-tier Spanish opponents beginning Friday, while experiencing a fair bit of off-the-court culture during a 10 day oversea trip.

On the eve of their journey - the first such foray out of the country for more than one in their party - head coach Mitch Henderson opened practice to the media and answered 10 minutes of my questions afterwards.

I also had a chance to speak with returning Tigers Brendan Connolly, Clay Wilson and Ian Hummer, who each have varying degrees of experience with international travel not to mention comfort levels with speaking Spanish.

Robert Solomon joined me on this visit at Jadwin. His photos, plus a number of observations and the aforementioned interview audio, can all be found after the jump.

Coach Mitch Henderson interview:

Brendan Connolly, Clay Wilson & Ian Hummer interview:

Will Barrett was especially impressive at today's practice - not just his shooting, but also his passing and his rebounding in traffic.

"Cultural advisor" Pete Carril watches the action.

With T.J. Bray and Jimmy Sherburne both unavailable to practice, assistant coaches Brian Earl (checked here by Ian Hummer) and Marcus Jenkins (getting a step on Clay Wilson below) were both forced to suit up at guard.

Dan Geriot replaced Mack Darrow, who was also sidelined but is expected to play in Spain.

A hook shot from Bobby Garbade.

Chris Clement strips Denton Koon. If Princeton is shorthanded at guard in Spain, Clement's minutes should increase. It was Clement who received the majority of Henderson's individual comments during today's practice, as Clement formed a starting "black jersey" backcourt with Wilson when the action shifted to five-on-five.

While Bray did not participate in drills he did attempt a few layups during breaks in the action.

Hummer flicks one up over Daniel Edwards.

Koon with the ball. It will be interesting to see how much time Koon plays at guard in addition to his time at forward.

Clement is cut off by Coach Earl. It was a foursome of Clement, Barrett, Garbade and Edwards who won the "first group to 20" three point shooting drill that opened the day's practice.

The other two teams:

Wilson/Connolly/Garbade/Geriot

Jenkins/Earl/Hummer/Koon

A discussion among the coaching staff, including new Director of Basketball Operations Brett MacConnell.

Hummer fires a wing jumper. In both three-on-three and five-on-five action the Jadwin shot clock was set to 18 seconds, to help adjust the Tigers to the quicker European possessions.

Brendan Connolly got great low position but missed a layup as he was fouled, so he repeated the shot several-fold after making a slight adjustment at Coach Henderson's suggestion.

Mack Darrow, I have no idea what is going on here.

Clay Wilson with the ball.

Hummer defends a Connolly jumper.

Next stop, Spain! If you have any questions out of today's practice I can try to answer them in the comments.

Coco said,

August 28, 2012 @ 3:45 pm

Jon, two questions:

1. Will Senor Carril be accompanying the team on this trip?

2. What is the nature of the various absences: injuries or scheduling conflicts?

Sherburne?

Bray?

Darrow?

Jon Solomon said,

August 28, 2012 @ 4:01 pm

1. Si.

2. Injuries. Bray's is discussed in the audio above. He's out for Spain (but will travel). The others are "day to day" (I bet at least one plays overseas).

Matt Walter said,

August 28, 2012 @ 7:09 pm

Jon,

How many media were at practice beside you?

Jon Solomon said,

August 28, 2012 @ 7:31 pm

Matt,

With the exception of Bob from Princeton Packet rolling in around 11:30 am ET after practice had concluded to get some quotes, I was the lone attendee.

Can't speak for yesterday's similar event, but I know the Trenton Times wrote an article that I'll be linking to tomorrow so I'd guess they were there.

Jon

Rodney Johnson said,

August 28, 2012 @ 9:55 pm

Jon--

Great interviews, and also, I enjoyed the mention of your one act play yesterday. It's one of the great post-modern works of the last century :)

This trip is a little bit of an early tease for the upcoming season, which should be a great one. I'm counting down the days to the Rutgers game.

The internet, including blogs like yours and webcasts of all the games, has brought me closer to the program over the last decade, and I'm grateful. The downside is that the guys move on after four years. Hard to believe that this will be Ian Hummer's last.

How does one say "Go Tigers" in Spanish?

Jon Solomon said,

August 29, 2012 @ 9:12 am

"Van Tigres!"

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