MONDAY
 
The second game of Longwood Men's Basketball's summer tour is played in the same gym as the first, and the opponent is a similar collection of French players. They're physical, but clearly less of a seamless, well-practiced team than the Lancers. Jon-Jon Massie, one of the eight new scholarship players on Longwood's squad, is explosive early. The Houston native has an ability to drive to the rim and finish that the contingent of Lancer supporters traveling with the team will be excited to see in the new Joan Perry Brock Center. Massie scores Longwood's first eight points en route to an early lead.
 
The French opponents are physical, however, and give Longwood a useful test with an aggressive full court press. In addition to contending with the challenge of different international rules (24-second shot clock, no goaltending off the rim), French officiating is, shall we say, "laissez-faire." But Longwood gives as good as it gets and shoots very well. The Lancers cruise in the second half to a sizeable victory.
 
Afterwards, the players thank, applaud and share Longwood t-shirts with the local fans, who have been positive and supportive through both contests in the Paris suburbs. For reasons that remain mysterious, a small group of fans has taken a liking to Longwood freshman walk-on Zac Murphy. They cheer loudly when Murphy gets into the game in the fourth quarter – and then go wild when he hits a late 3-pointer.
 
Two games in Paris, two physical tests but decisive victories. Coach Aldrich is pleased. The next morning it's off to Nice and the South of France – a new setting, and one more game.
 
TUESDAY
 
There's time set aside on the trip for educational activities, and others to focus on basketball. And then there are moments set up for pure fun and togetherness. After Longwood's short flight from Paris lands on the Cote D'Azur, the players head to the center of bustling Nice and the waterfront. After a quick change into bathing suits, they find themselves – players, coaches, staff – in the back of a speedboat in the Mediterranean Sea, trying to summon the courage to latch themselves into a parasail.
 
"At first nobody wanted to do it," forward Trey Hicks says later. "But then a couple guys start saying, 'come on, we've got to try.' And finally it's like, 'OK, we've all just got to do it.'"
 
Massie and Saxby Sunderland step up first, but Hicks is eager and soon finds himself gliding a hundred or so feet above the deep blue water. Even guard DA Houston, who didn't exactly love being high above London when the team visited the London Eye (a giant glass ferris wheel), summons the courage. So does Coach Aldrich.
 
More challenging is the high-speed tubing – three players at a time at water level, but dragged behind as the speedboat whips them around like a basketball on the perimeter when the Lancers' offense is humming. Hicks gets the outside seat, which takes the most centrifugal force and is the roughest ride.
 
"I was just getting thrown all over," he laughs. "He was good at throwing the boat, and I was just getting clobbered."
 
The guys have a few bumps and bruises – luckily athletic trainer Leah Radigan is along for the ride – but mostly big smiles.
 
For Hicks, whose parents, from Louisville, were among some players' family members who joined the group, this kind of bonding is the heart of the trip.
 
"We've already been together six weeks during the summer, so we have a good grasp of who everybody is," he says. "But the experience is really strong, doing stuff like the London Eye, just walking around the streets and meeting people in a different culture. We'll have stories about this we'll tell for years."
 
WEDNESDAY.

Game three. So far, Longwood has been tested by travel and culture, but not yet truly on the basketball court. That's about to change. The un-air-conditioned gym in Golfe-Juan, just beside the coastal city of Antibes, is an absolute oven in the August Mediterranean heat. The opponents are tougher, too – more experienced, including several with American Division I experience. For much if not most of the game, their five on the floor are as big, or bigger, than the Lancers. More importantly, this is a club team that plays together regularly – not a collection of All-Stars. They run real offensive sets and know each other well, and it shows.
 
The Lancers build a 48-40 lead at halftime, but in the third quarter suddenly find themselves in a real battle. Golfe-Juan whips the ball around the perimeter, and two of their sharpshooters suddenly can't miss from 3-point range. They cut the lead to 53-52 with 4:30 to go in the third quarter. Aldrich calls timeout. A minute later another 3-pointer puts Longwood's opponents ahead 56-53.
 
It's a key moment of the trip. The Lancers are tired, the gym is broiling, and they have lost momentum; it wouldn't be shocking for this one to slip away. But it's also an opportunity for veteran leadership, and senior guard Walyn Napper steps up. Trailing 60-58 with 1:25 left in the third, Napper drives hard to the rim off a fast break, converts to tie the game, and draws a foul. He misses the free throw, but 7-foot Longwood newcomer Szymon Zapala grabs the rebound and scores a put-back to give Longwood back the lead. Then Jesper Granlund blocks a shot, and Zapala scores again on a dunk off the break. Napper forces another turnover after that. The free throw shooting touch is missing all night, but the Lancers' powerful defense-into-offense engine fuels this very fast, very big late third-quarter run. In a flash, Longwood turns a deficit into a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter. The Lancers pour it on the rest of the way to get their third victory of the trip – but the first that didn't come easily.
 
"One thing I like about this team is, previous teams I've been on, you fall behind like we did, you'd have one or two guys trying to take over and do it all themselves," Massie says afterward. "We didn't do that. We elevated on our talent and our toughness, we elevated to a higher level. We made it look like a big win even though it was a contest."
 
After thanking the local fans, Longwood gathers in what passes for the locker room – certainly the least fancy one they'll see all season. Aldrich tells the team there's plenty to work on, but he's proud of how they responded to the challenge – and the effort they've shown throughout the trip.
 
"I hope this has been really fun basketball," he tells them. "You guys have put in work that will really pay dividends. You're connecting with one another, and you are learning to fight."
 
Later, on the bus back to central Paris, Aldrich calls the final game a really good test.
 
"That was a true team, not a group of all-stars," he said. "They were older, more experienced players. Their style of play was much more challenging. They were running sets and they had plays every time down the floor, and it was a more physical game. It really exposed some areas where we need to get better. But it made us really sharpen ourselves, and as the game went on, you saw that happen."
 
THURSDAY.
 
It's the end of the journey, with one final day to explore Nice – the tight, winding alleys of the Old Town, packed until the early hours with visitors from all over the world, filled with restaurants of every cuisine imaginable. Many of the players join the throngs at the beach. A few take another go at parasailing. On Friday, they will scatter until the academic year begins back on campus in a few weeks. Longwood's European players get a chance to stay on their home continent a little longer, and the Americans get some brief time back with their families before the semester, and the pre-season, truly get underway. One thing is certain: This team, and its staff and supporters, have a strong head start.
 
"Just being around each other for a long period, away from home, away from family, where we're all we've got," Massie, a Houston native, said when asked what he thought would be the biggest impact of the trip. The most fun was the time on the water, but he said he really enjoyed many of the educational parts of the trip. His favorite, which he hadn't expected, was the Palace of Versailles. "I'm just very thankful for it," he says of the journey.
 
For Hicks, the most memorable part was the D-Day landing site in Normandy.
 
"It really put things in perspective," he said. "You hear about it growing up, but to be there, and see all the graves, and see the cliffs they had to climb, it's a real eye-opener."
 
The on-court basketball experience was "useful," he says, but its impact is TBD. The most lasting impact was "the stories we created."
 
The basketball impact is indeed TBD. Still, the Longwood supporters tagging along couldn't help but feel excitement about the upcoming season. Napper showed leadership throughout. Among the newcomers, Massie was electric at times. Zapala, at seven feet, will be consequential presence at both ends of the floor. Jonah Nziemi was a pleasant surprise, looking comfortable in the Longwood system at both ends of the floor. Longwood's defense was smothering. At the very least, the inaugural season in the JPB will feature a deep team capable of wearing down opponents with effort, depth, and ball movement. (The opposing coach in the final game approached Longwood's coaches after and asked for a copy of the game's video so his own team could study Longwood's system. The learning goes both ways).
 
For Longwood basketball more broadly, the trip was also a signal – along with the new arena officially opening now in less than two weeks, of arrival at a higher level of college basketball. It helped cement a personal connection among coaches, players and supporters. It was meaningful to have along several members of "Built to Win," a coalition of program supporters that includes some former players, but also other alumni and even some with few previous ties to Longwood who simply believe in Aldrich and the program and have invested in the vision. They, too, have played an essential role in the rise of Longwood basketball.
 
But above all, it was a chance for student-athletes to grow – the reward that prompted Aldrich to change his career and vocation to coaching seven years ago. 
 
 "Talking to our guys, they're very grateful they got this opportunity in London, Paris, Normandy, Nice, and they know they'll be even more grateful as time passes," Aldrich said. "Education is about expanding horizons, culturally, and when it comes to basketball. They got to see something they love so much, this game, and learn that this is how they do it in other places. That means something. And I think they'll come back with a sense of gratitude for what they have – as a country, as a university, and as a program."
 
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