UM men’s basketball team heads to France next week for 10-day tour. Here’s the itinerary

The last road trip the University of Miami men’s basketball team took was to Houston for the Final Four, and it was a memorable one as the Hurricanes made team history. Next week, the team embarks on a 10-day summer trip to France, and coach Jim Larranaga’s aim is for players to bond on and off the court and get some history lessons along the way.

The Canes will spend four nights in Paris, two in Normandy and three in Nice. They will play three exhibition games, visit the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, other popular Paris sites, the beaches of southern France, and will do a historical tour of the D-Day war memorials at Normandy Beach, where Allied troops stormed during World War II.

To prepare the team for the Normandy visit, Larranaga, a movie buff, will be showing players the first 26 minutes of the epic film, Saving Private Ryan.

“Hopefully we’ll have some relaxing time to go to the beaches and just enjoy the culture and the great food that France provides,” Larranaga said. “It is very, very much a cultural and educational trip as well as the basketball. I would say the cultural and educational component is even more important than the basketball.”

The NCAA allows teams to take foreign trips once every four years. The Hurricanes traveled to Italy in 2019 and Spain in 2014.

The trip offers Larranaga and his staff a chance to get new players integrated and to evaluate them in game settings.

Miami will play two games in Paris against the Parisian Select team, which is made up of local professional players, and then travel to Nice and play AC Golfe Juan Vallauris.

The 10 days of practice leading to the Tuesday departure is an opportunity to get a head start on preparations for the 2023-24 season. Seven players return from the Final Four team and five are new — four freshmen and Florida State transfer Matthew Cleveland.

“The 10 practices are vital for evaluation to see how our recruits are in this day and age,” Larranaga said. “There is so much transferring and new guys, so we’re trying to figure out what direction do we need to go in. The trip to Paris is really about bonding, the players get to know each other. The players will room with different roommates in each city. We’ll play the three games, and then we’ll get to see what each player can do under game conditions.”

Sophomore guard Christian Watson is among the Hurricanes who has never traveled abroad.

“I’ve never been out of the country, just got my passport, so I’m looking forward to using it,” Wilkins said. “I’m looking forward to bonding with the team, getting to know the guys a little bit better and winning those three games that we have out there. It’s exhibition games, but we’re going to take them very seriously.”

Junior guard Bensley Joseph, a Haitian American, visited Paris when he was younger and is eager to go back.

“French and Creole are different languages, but there’s some things that are similar, that I can understand and hopefully vice versa,” Joseph said. “I’m really excited to see the new scenery and bond with my team and the coaches.”

The Hurricanes lost key players Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller to the NBA, but return Nijel Pack, Norchad Omier, Wooga Poplar, and Joseph, all of whom played big roles last season. Cleveland is an experienced transfer who knows the ACC and broke the Hurricanes’ heart with his buzzer-beating game-winner for the Seminoles last season.

Among the freshmen, two to watch are Canadian center Michael Nwoku and Swiss guard Kyshawn George. At 6-10, Nwoku is Miami’s tallest player and raised his stock on the AAU circuit. George played in the French professional league but maintained his amateur status, allowing him to play in college.

“I think he’s going to make a nice contribution as a freshman,” Larranaga said of Nwoku. Kyshawn George can shoot the three, can handle the ball. He’s very versatile, but he’s very, very young to the American game, how fast it is and how strong the athletes are. So, I think it’ll take him a while. But I think again, he’ll be a contributor as a freshman.”