Rickea Jackson celebrates during Women’s AmeriCup play in Leon, Mexico. She and teammate Jewel Spear played for Team USA after the Lady Vols returned from Europe.
-- Photograph Courtesy Fiba Women’S BasketballUniversity of Tennessee basketball players have been making good use of their passports this summer, traveling across the world representing their school and their country.
The men’s and women’s hoops teams are both visiting Europe this summer, with both making stops in Italy. They are intertwining basketball with cultural immersion, team bonding and sightseeing experiences.
The Lady Vols completed their tour last month, visiting Italy and Greece and playing two games. It was the 11th international trip in program history.
“Everything that we did as a team together, I think that is the most memorable part of the trip,” Tennessee guard Jasmine Powell said on social media. “Being with the team, sometimes when you are in the states and just doing things, it doesn’t add up the same. This hits different basically.”
The Lady Vols began their trip in Venice, where they navigated the Grand Canal by water taxi and took a walking tour that visited Piazza San Marco and Rialto Bridge. They took a gondola ride through the canals of Venice before paying the Venice All-Stars, which they beat 89-76.
In Rome, the Lady Vols took a guided tour of the Colosseum, saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Novna. Before their second game against the Rome All-Stars, which they beat 100-48, the team visited the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. Before leaving Italy, they toured excavated ruins and took a lesson in pizza making.
In Greece, the team visited the Acropolis and Parthenon, Temple of the Poseidon and made a stop along the Athenian Riviera on the Saronic Gulf.
“We are grateful to have this opportunity to travel overseas, see historic sites and incredible scenery firsthand and get an early start on 2023-24,” Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper said before the team departed. “Having a few practices beforehand, playing games abroad and sharing amazing experiences over two weeks will allow us to build camaraderie and chemistry for next season.”
The UT men’s basketball team will be traveling to Italy July 31-Aug. 9 for a three-game exhibition tour. The Vols are scheduled to play the Lithuanian U21 national team twice in Florence and the Italian club team A.S. Stella Azzura once in Rome. Video of all three games will be streamed live on FloSports.
Toby Awaka represented Team USA in the FIBA Men’s U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. Awaka, from Hyde Park, New York, is a rising sophomore at UT.
-- Photograph Courtesy Fiba Men’S BasketballDuring the trip, the Vol will take a boat tour of Lake Como, a tour of the Florence Cathedral and make stops at the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum and Vatican City.
A few Lady Vols and Vols had their bags packed for even more basketball and travel.
Once the Lady Vols returned home, Rickea Jackson and Jewel Spear joined Team USA in the Women’s AmeriCup in Leon, Mexico. Jackson and Spear were part of a 12-player American roster that took silver in the event, falling to Brazil in the championship game.
Jackson finished the tournament averaging 14.6 points and 4.9 rebounds to earn a spot on the All-Star Five of the tournament. Spear, who transferred to UT from Wake Forest in May, averaged 5.6 points. and 1.4 assists over seven contests. Jackson’s scoring average was fourth among the 109 players seeing action in the 2023 AmeriCup.
“It just gave me a glimpse of how we’ll be in the league, the WNBA and overseas,” Jackson says. “They’re very, very physical and the calls that we would normally get over here in the U.S., they’re not calling that over there so I feel like it gave me some things, to play more physical but still play finesse. I still play my game, don’t play down to their level or feel like I have to out-physical them. They’ve been doing this for a long time.”
Jackson and Spear got a jump-start on their relationship as teammates.
“We’re really good friends off the court and we’ve only been together for a month,” Spear says. “We’re both Pisces, so we kind of talk about that too. She always says ‘I wonder why we gel so good together,’ but I think it’s because of Pisces. It was really smooth. We were both roommates in Colorado Springs and during training camp and then we were roommates in Mexico too.”
Rising sophomore Tobe Awaka represented Team USA in the FIBA Men’s U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. The Americans finished in fourth place, losing to Turkey in the bronze-medal game.
Awaka started six of the seven games for Team USA and was the team’s leading rebounder (10.6) and second-leading scorer at (11.6). Awaka was the only player in the tournament to record four double-doubles.
“I don’t think there’s any question it was great for Tobe and the experience he got from it,” UT head coach Rick Barnes says. “I think he would tell you that he loved every minute of it. I think a situation like that can help a person like Tobe really get confidence and grow, especially with the way he performed.”