Tigers Women's Basketball Heads On Foreign Tour Of Spain Monday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – ¿Lo que hasta tigres? (Translation: What's up, Tigers?)

Glad someone asked.

The University of Memphis women's basketball team heads out Monday for a four-game, 10-day summer foreign tour of Spain. The Tigers depart Memphis International Airport mid-day on Monday, Aug. 8 and play their first of four games Wednesday, Aug. 10.

This foreign tour is the first for the Memphis women's basketball program since it visited Italy in the summer of 2011. On this tour of Spain, the Tigers are scheduled to make stops in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.

"First, I have to give a 'shout-out' to our FastBreak Club which made this possible through its amazing fundraising activities," said Tigers head coach Melissa McFerrin, who enters her ninth season at Memphis in 2016-17.

The 2016-17 campaign looks to be a "new-look" season for the Tigers with the graduation departures of the 2015-16 four-member senior class of Asianna Fuqua-Bey, Ariel Hearn, Mooriah Rowser and Brianna Wright. McFerrin plans to use this trip to find this squad's personality.

"We have many objectives from a basketball perspective for this trip," McFerrin said. "We want to be a better team than we were when we began practice for this trip two weeks ago, and then we want to be a better team after our trip than we were when we left.

"Because this program had heavy losses to due graduation, we have to figure out roles and this team's personality. The basic structure of what we do will be the same as it has been, but we now need to tweak that structure to this squad's personnel. That's part of my challenge as well as my staff's."

Although for only four games, the Tigers are playing with FIBA rules. Some changes are the three-point line (19-9 women's collegiate; 20-6.25 women's international), trapezoid lane and shot clock (30 seconds women's collegiate; 24 seconds women's international).

"We did not concentrate on the (international) rules much in our practices," said McFerrin. "We shot some from the international three-point line and worked with the wider lane, but the rules were not an emphasis during our practices. We're only going to play with these rules for four games. We're focusing on this upcoming season."

Around playing games, the team plans to soak in the Spanish culture and history. On the off-day, the Tigers are going to have some beach time in Valencia.

"We're going to visit some of the great cities in the world in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona," McFerrin said. "We'll have an opportunity to take in a lot of the history. Valencia is more of a beach community, so we'll take a day off there to have some fun. In Barcelona, we'll tour some of the Olympic venues when they hosted in 1992.

"We're staying in the hearts of the cities we're visiting so the players can experience the culture, the music and the food. I want this to be a great cultural experience for our team."

As for the games, Memphis plays two games beginning Wednesday, Aug. 10. The Tigers have an off-day scheduled in Valencia after their first two contests and return to action for the final two match-ups Aug. 15-16.

"For teams in Spain, it's early for them and many are just getting back together," said McFerrin. "We are in Spain on this tour with the University of Oklahoma women's squad, so the Sooners are playing the same schedule as we are. The Spanish clubs are putting teams together now, and they may add players while we're there.

"I know us and Oklahoma both requested to play the best teams they have, so those clubs are bringing in some quality players. The competition is going to get stronger as the week goes on."

University of Memphis Athletics

Tigers Women's Basketball Heads On Foreign Tour Of Spain Monday

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Asianna Fuqua-Bey

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