MADRID, Spain — Although there was some more sightseeing on Monday in the artsy Spanish city of Toledo, Arkansas’ basketball team also got down to business.
The Razorbacks went through a one-hour practice at a local gymnasium. It was their first time on a court since landing in Madrid on Sunday at 8 a.m. after flying through the night.
That practice came in advance of Arkansas’ first exhibition game of the 10-day trip - a contest against Eurocolegio Casvi on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Central.
“It was good to get a basketball back in their hands,” said Matt Zimmerman, Arkansas’ director of basketball operations. “We had not practiced since Friday and we thought it was important. The guys got a lot of shots up and that was good.”
“In Italy (four years ago), it was the same type of travel scenario except we did not practice before the first game. We won in a blowout, but did not play as well as we would have liked and the team wasn’t as strong as we would liked.
“We don’t know about this team yet, but I do know that we were really rusty in Italy that first game even though we won big. You sure couldn’t tell it from the box score because we didn’t play that well.
“So we put a practice in front this time to get them a little bit more prepared to go from the start.”
Eurocolegio Casvi is led by 22-year-old Jorge Gonzalez (6-6, 198 pounds), who averaged 13.1 points per game last season.
He joins a front court that goes 6-9, 6-6 and 6-5 in its starting lineup.
BYU played Euro Colegio Casvi last summer and won 95-74. Nebraska also beat the team 79-64 last year. Both teams went 4-0 on their tours of Spain.
Purdue plays Eurocolegio Casvi on Wednesday.
Following its first exhibition game, Arkansas will travel to Valencia on Wednesday and play Albacete Basketball, a professional team that had at least eight players between the ages 24 and 39 last season.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play four exhibition games during the trip.