FAYETTEVILLE — The SEC isn’t annexing Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of a European expansion plan secretly drawn up by Commissioner Mike Slive, athletic directors and ESPN at the conference’s spring meetings.
But it might appear as though the SEC, which has grown from 10 to 14 teams since 1992, is expanding its reach across the Atlantic Ocean later this summer when Hog calls, Gator chomps, Georgia Bulldog woofs, “Rocky Top” and chants of “M-I-Z, ZO-U” figure to be seen and heard around Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Rome and, yes,Vatican City, the world’s smallest country and home to Pope Benedict XVI.
Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee have tours of Italy, while Florida and Missouri - which along with Texas A&M officially joins the SEC from the Big 12 next week - will tour France and Belgium.
Vanderbilt is avoiding the crowd by taking its August tour to Australia.
“I’m sure the passion of SEC fans will cross the pond just as easily as it does across the South,” Georgia’s Mark Fox said Monday during the SEC basketball coaches’ summer teleconference. “A lot of SEC folks will travel and follow their teams.”
Arkansas, preparing for its second season under Coach Mike Anderson, will play at least three exhibition games from Aug. 10-19, with stops in Milan, Florence, Rome, Pisa and Vatican City.
Teams taking part in foreign tours, which are allowable every four years under NCAA rules, also benefit from having 10 practices before traveling abroad.
The Razorbacks’ five signees are eligible to take part in the tour along with returning players.
“It’s going to give us a little sneak preview of hopefully some things to come,” Anderson said.
The tour practices and games could be especially beneficial for Arkansas redshirt junior forward Marshawn Powell, who missed all but two games last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Anderson said Powell is “progressing pretty nicely” in his rehabilitation process. New NCAA basketball rules allow coaches to work with players for two hours a week during summer school over an eight-week period, and Anderson said Powell has begun to jump with both legs and “explode to the basket.”
Powell underwent knee surgery in January and Anderson said it’s uncertain how much he’ll be able to practice and play in August.
“It will give us a benchmark to see where he is at that point in time, to see if he will play or how much he will play when we go to Italy,” Anderson said.
Alandise Harris, a junior forward and former Little Rock Central standout who transferred from Houston to Arkansas after last season, won’t be able to go on the Italian tour unless he gets an NCAA waiver by that time allowing him to be eligible to play for the Razorbacks during the 2012-2013 season.
“We’ll still petition to hopefully make that happen,” Anderson said. “So it’s a work in progress.”
Fox said he was Nevada’s coach and his team went on a foreign tour, it was especially beneficial for players who had been sidelined the previous season.
“It’s a way for a guy to get comfortable again on the floor and take the final steps forward in his recovery so he can have a good year,” Fox said. “So for Marshawn, it probably will be a great trip.”
Florida Coach Billy Donovan said a trip to a foreign country where english is not the primary language can be helpful.
“It really forces your team to come together, stay close,” Donovan said. “You can get a head start developing relationships inside your team.”
Newcomers also get a better sense, coaches said, for what it takes to play at an SEC level.
“The trip to Italy will help the new guys develop an understanding of how we’re trying to play and hopefully make them more comfortable when the season starts,” Fox said.
“I think at the end of the process, most coaches would tell you it’s something that helps you be very successful,” Donovan said.
Some of the European pro teams that SEC teams face might be missing their star players because the Olympics are being held around the same time.
“I think for the most part, it still should be pretty good teams we’ll be playing,” said Tennessee Coach Cuonzo Martin, who played professionally in Avellino, Italy. “But for us, it’s more about developing as a team as opposed to who we’re playing.”
Martin said teams “develop a great camaraderie” on foreign tours.
“The players also get to see coaches in a different light, being around their families on a day-to-day basis as you all travel together,” Martin said. “I think that part is invaluable.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 06/26/2012