NICE, France – It took nearly 24 hours on the clock for the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team to officially arrive at its initial destination in Europe, but the Commodores are on site and continuing preparations for the first of three games this week.
The journey began at noon CT on Saturday following a two-hour practice at Georgia Tech when the Dores departed for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Vandy took a nine-hour flight to Frankfurt to enter the continent, and after a brief layover the Dores made a connection to Nice to arrive at the hotel just before noon local time Sunday.
“I’m dragging right now, I’m pretty tired,” senior transfer Ezra Manjon said. “It’s not that I’m feeling the jet lag, I didn’t really get much sleep on the plane. That’s the hardest travel I’ve ever done. I haven’t traveled more than five hours across the country. Facing the time change and then having to get on another plane for an hour to get here was tough.”
📍 Nice 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/O9onMsgVTq
— Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (@VandyMBB) August 7, 2022
The team was able to eat lunch and held a brief meeting before a group departed for a walking tour of the city.
“I like the architecture everywhere, the buildings are super nice,” Manjon said. “I like how narrow the streets are, it’s just a completely different feel than the U.S. I’m a real fan of how the buildings look.”
⚓️ Creating memories that will last a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/TptNWogqZf
— Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (@VandyMBB) August 8, 2022
The Dores did get in another two-hour practice late Sunday afternoon at the Complexe Minicipal Omnisports, where they will take on Kameet Basketball at 11 a.m. CT Monday in their opening contest of the trip. Despite the travel, Manjon is looking forward to making his unofficial Vandy debut.
“I’m excited, we’ve been working hard all summer,” he said. “I’m excited to see everybody put it all together. I think we’re going to jell real well together, we have a lot of chemistry already.”
