NUMBB set to play four preseason games in Europe

The ‘Cats are on the move!

With the Northwestern football team heading up to Kenosha this week (we’ll have live coverage from there on Thursday), Chris Collins decided to one up Pat Fitzgerald by taking his team to traverse the European continent to play some basketball.

Per a program press release, the Northwestern men’s basketball team will travel to Europe from August 18-August 29 to play four preseason games. You can read the team’s full trip itinerary here.

The Wildcats are one of many high-major programs that have chosen to take summer trips to Europe to kick off their seasons. Per Stadium, fellow conference foes Rutgers, Minnesota, Illinois and Nebraska have all gone on foreign tours in August.

This foreign tour will give us our first look at this young 2019-20 team ‘Cats on the hardwood after what’s been a rather eventful off-season for the program. In case you’ve been checked out since the season ended in March, here’s all the news you’ve missed regarding Chris Collins’ program:

• Three players transferred from the program
• Chase Audige transferred to Northwestern from William & Mary, but will have to sit out a season
• Pat Spencer, a former lacrosse star, transferred to NU for his final year of NCAA eligibility
• The team brought on three walk-ons (none are related to famous people)
• Bryant McIntosh announced he’s coming back to Evanston!
• And then we learned the program’s top 2020 commit is no longer coming to Evanston

Buckle up, folks. This 2019-20 season is gonna be quite the ride.