TOUR OF ITALY: Princeton University men’s basketball player Hans Brase, right, works on his inside moves in a practice session. This week rising senior Brase and his teammates are currently on an 11-day journey through Italy starting in Rome and traveling through Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Como before heading home on August 31. Along the way, the Tigers will face three Italian professional teams, including two from Serie A2 and one from Serie B. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Hans Brase has extensive experience playing in Europe due to his time with Germany’s national basketball program.

The Princeton University men’s hoops rising senior star was on the German U-20 team that competed in the FIBA European Championships in the summer of 2013 and then played with the German second national team the next year in friendly events in Romania and China. In 2015, he helped the German second national team earn a silver medal at the World University Games in Gwangju City, South Korea.

So as the Princeton University men’s basketball team prepared for an 11-day trip to Italy, the players naturally turned to Brase for advice.

“They call me grandpa because I am so old now,” said the bearded Brase with a laugh reflecting on the journey which will see the Tigers make stops in Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Como from August 20-31, facing three Italian professional teams along the way, including two from Serie A2 and one from Serie B. “Thanks to the German national team, I have been all over Europe, which is nice.”

Drawing on his background in international competition, Brase is passing on some key tips to his teammates.

“I tell them what to expect, some of the little rules on travels are different,” said Brase, who was born in the U.S. and resides in Clover, S.C. but has close German ancestry.

“The biggest thing is not taking anyone for granted because they might look like slow old men but they are going to come after us and they are tough.”

Brase is working on getting up to speed after missing the 2015-16 season due to a knee injury that required surgery last November.

“It is doing well, I am slowly getting back into it,” said Brase, a 6’8, 231-pound forward who averaged 11.5 points and  7.5 rebounds a game in the 2014-15 season.

“The biggest thing is to make sure that I am ready for the first game of the season in November, that is the focus so I don’t come back too early. I got on the court this spring and did drills and stuff.”

In Brase’s view, the trip to Italy is a good way for Princeton to get a jump on things before the 2016-17 campaign.

“The other high majors have summer school; they can kind of practice with one another all summer but in the Ivy League we are not allowed to do that,” said Brase.

“Once every four years we can do a trip. It really helps us, particularly since we are bringing everyone back from last year minus one senior. We will get a head start on the fall and get some games under our belt. We want to come back to the team we were and try to take another step.”

Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson sees the trip to Italy as a way for his players to forge even deeper bonds.

“This is the third or fourth time I have been on this in some capacity as a coach, an assistant, or a player,” said Henderson, a former Princeton hoops star who served as an assistant coach at Northwestern for 10 years prior to returning to his alma mater in 2011.

“I really look at this as being all about the long bus trips. Experiencing something new together as a group is great. You get to see Michelangelo’s David and you walk out of that as a group and everyone looks at each other a little bit differently. You are going to a country where most of our guys have never been. I have some expectations but at the same time I am very open-minded. I am looking forward to be around them as they experience these things and just sharing it with them.”

With Princeton experiencing a 22-7 campaign in 2105-16 which saw it finish second in the Ivies and lose an 86-81 overtime heartbreaker to Virginia Tech in the first round of the NIT, Henderson believes the Tigers are primed for a big season this winter.

“We can shoot, they are a very skilled group, they like each other,” said Henderson.

“The versatility hasn’t changed and everyone is a year older and a little bit smarter. Hopefully the hunger is there. The game against Virginia Tech really set the tone for us in the spring and the summer with the disappointment and what it is going to take to win a game like that. It is how do you go about your business in the spring and the summer in order to get over the hump.”

Henderson is looking for his players to take a business-like approach as they face Italian pro teams this week.

“It is just compete, play against the highest level of competition, test our mettle but don’t develop any bad habits,” said Henderson.

“We have set some goals that are appropriate for the group and so far they have matched them in just a few days of practice. It is really a mental thing. It is let’s exceed any sort of expectations that we may have for ourselves by a factor of ten. Let’s take this thing to another level.”

Brase, for his part, is focused on the goal of ending his Princeton career with an Ivy championship.

“In my four years, we have been second or third every year so I need to leave with a title,” said Brase.

“We always talk about it, getting another banner up. We were so close last year so the guys are all really hungry. We have a motto, that we take it personally in everything we do. Even though we were good last year we want to be even better this year.”