Hurricanes Preview Upcoming Foreign Tour to France

The University of Miami men’s basketball team will embark on an 11-day trip to France on Aug. 1, marking the program’s first foreign tour in four years. The Hurricanes previously visited Spain in 2014 and Italy in 2019.

The team begins its voyage in Paris, where it will stay from Aug. 2-5. Miami will then visit Normandy from Aug. 6-7 before concluding its tour in Nice from Aug. 8-10.

Head coach Jim Larrañaga already has plans for his team to visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre in Paris, as well as the glamorous beaches in Nice, among other tours. 

“It is very much a cultural and educational trip, as well as the basketball,” Larrañaga said on Wednesday. “I would say the cultural and educational component is even more important than the basketball.”

Miami won’t practice during this voyage, but it will play three games, creating an opportunity for the team’s five newcomers to gel and bond with the returning players.

“It’s 10 days, so the players will room with different roommates in each city,” Larrañaga said. “So we’re going to Paris, Normandy and Nice, so you’ll have three different guys that you’ll room with, so you’ll get to know the newcomers a little bit better.”

This will be an entirely new experience for some of Miami’s players. In the case of sophomore guard Christian Watson, this will be his first time leaving the United States.

“I’m just looking forward to going out of the country for the first time, just got my passport so I’m looking forward to using it. I’m just looking forward to bonding with the team, getting to know the guys a little bit better,” Watson said. “Just winning those three games that we have out there, taking them very seriously. [They are] exhibition games, but we’re gonna take it very seriously. We’ve been preparing really well in practice so overall, I’m just looking to just win those three games and just have fun with my teammates and bond with them.”

Junior guard Bensley Joseph has visited France before, but he indicated that he was very young on this initial trip. Being of Haitian descent, Joseph hopes that he’ll be able to speak some French because of its similarities to Creole.

“It’s really different, completely two different languages, but there are some things that are similar out there that I can understand and hopefully vice versa, but I’m excited to go out there [and] speak a little bit of my French that I know,” Joseph said.

The Hurricanes will play two games in Paris and one game in Nice. They will return to South Florida on Aug. 11.

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