CLEMSON — Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell spoke to the media before Thursday’s practice at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Tigers are practicing for their trip to Italy on July 27-Aug. 6. Brownell feels this is a real opportunity for his team to grow in their relationships and get to know one another. With several key players back, like Ace Buckner, Zac Foster and Carter Welling, but not playing, this is an opportunity for a lot of the new players to get to know each other on the basketball court.

“I think as much as any, it’s the relationship building and [trust] that happens organically through spending time together and all the different things that happen during your journey,” Brownell said. “You can’t put a price tag on that like in terms of what that means. I think moving forward, building relationships both with coaches and players together, certainly the learning experience is awesome.

“We always take a class, our guys take a class that kind of leads into the the trip, which I think makes them understand the importance of we’re trying to get something out out of this and I think our guys do. So, that’s fun, but just 10 days together doing all different kinds of things together. Basketball probably being the least significant. I think also it’s a little bit of a reward for how hard our guys have worked all summer to know, hey, we’re building to this and then we’re going to go have a great experience together. So it’s been really good for us over the years.”

This will be Clemson’s fourth overseas trip under Brownell (2013 Italy, 2017 Spain, 2022 France, 2026 Italy), not including the team’s participation in the 2019 World University Games that saw Clemson claim a gold medal.

Clemson will depart on July 27 and return Aug. 6. The Tigers will play BC Silute (Lithuanian A2 League) while in Rome, Pro Camp (A2 and B1 Italian Select Team) while in Florence and Orange Bassano (Italian U20 Team) in Como.

Their first game is July 29 against BC Silute. Tip is set for 12:30 p.m., eastern time.