Salukis embark on foreign trip to Cuba

The Southern Illinois men's basketball team leaves Sunday for a week-long trip to Cuba. SIU is taking its first foreign trip in 10 years, and the Salukis are just the third NCAA men's basketball team ever to play in Cuba.

"You can always go to Spain; you can always go to Italy; you can always go to Europe, the Bahamas or Canada. But you just can't always go to Cuba," SIU head coach Barry Hinson said. "There were several things I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to go to a place that is unique, and I wanted to go to a place where we would really struggle to win a ball game--to really challenge us. Teams go to Canada or the Bahamas and win by 50. That's not going to help us."

Southern will play a three-game series against the Cuban National Team August 6-8. In addition, the Salukis will conduct a kids clinic, visit the US Embassy and local craft markets, learn salsa dancing, tour a cigar store, and more.

Due to extremely limited internet availability, coverage of SIU's trip will not be available until the team returns to the United States. Stories and photos will be available on SIUSalukis.com, Twitter (@SIU_Basketball), Facebook (SalukiAthletics), and Instagram (@SIU_Basketball) during the week of August 12-19.

SIU players are looking forward to playing against a professional team and thankful for the opportunity.

"This is something I wouldn't be able to do without basketball and without SIU," junior guard Aaron Cook said. "I can't even put into words how thankful I am to this university for doing all of this for us."

"It will be a really good gauge for us," senior guard Marcus Bartley said. "We're playing grown men--pros. It will be good to try to work some things in and see how we stack up."

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