Butler basketball travel journal: A trip Dawgs 'will remember for the rest of our lives.'

Editor's note: Carmel's John-Michael Mulloy will submit journal entries for IndyStar during the Butler Bulldogs' tour of Italy and Greece.

Wake-up time for Game 2 was 8:30 a.m., and the bus departed at 9:30 to begin our day in Rome. We visited the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon before ending the tour part of the day at the Piazza Navona.

It again was amazing to see all of these historic sites, and was a great time with the team as all of us were bonding even more than we were before. Everyone posing for pictures for Instagram photo dumps at the end of the trip, everyone trying to speak their best Italian to the locals.

This will be a trip each and every one of us will remember for the rest of our lives.

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It was a hot day on our tour, and we all had to get back and relax to get ready for our second game and attempt to top our previous performance. We loaded the bus prepared this time for the heat, ready to play Butler basketball.

Coach Matta challenged us again to play even better. He challenged us to play even harder, even though we knew we would probably win the game, and that’s exactly what we did. We played better than the game before, with fewer errors, and were a lot more connected.

Coach was proud of us as we did what he asked, but at the same time he knew we had better in us to come.

After winning by 30 points again, the team was definitely tired. Considering we had been touring in the morning in 90-degree heat both days and then playing in a hot gym, we needed rest. Getting our first two games behind us was good as we now knew the type of team we could be and were excited to get some R&R in Sorrento, Italy.

Days 5 and 6: Rest, and pretending to be Celtics

I started off the first day in Sorrento by sleeping. While a lot of our energy had been taken out of us by the tours and games, the jet lag had finally sunk in and we all needed to get back on sleeping schedules.

We spent most of the first day at the pool hanging out and having laughs. At night, we went to another nice dinner and came to realize Italy does dinner a lot different than we do. While we are used to going out as a team and taking around a hour, in Italy a team dinner could consist of a three-hour, six-course meal in which servers keep bringing food until we tell them to stop.

The second day, many of us spent traveling around the town square and trying gelato flavors. This was our most free day of the trip, and we didn’t have anything planned.

The highlight came later in the night. The team decided to return to the town square, and we were pleased to see the vibes were at an all-time high with plenty of people singing, laughing, and dancing in the street.

Having our entire team walk through the town square together caught some eyes as we are all above the average height of a common Italian. We began to have people come up to us and ask if we were basketball players.

At first, we played it down and politely said yes and continued walking. After so long, we decided to begin to have a little fun with our answers to those coming up to us and asking questions. We began to tell them we were the Boston Celtics.

Little did we know the Boston Celtics were quite a fan favorite in Sorrento. Less than 10 minutes after our first Celtics answer, we seemingly created a crowd around us of people trying to get pictures and autographs. It was a moment our entire team will never forget.

As the crowd grew bigger, it began to get out of hand as people began to look us up. We knew our cover would be blown and could maybe start a riot when people found out we weren’t actually the professional NBA team.

We quickly departed from the square and got back to the hotel for some rest and to lock in for our next adventure in Athens, Greece.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Butler basketball travel journey: Dawgs pretend to be Boston Celtics