SDSU men's basketball team heading to Brazil

The South Dakota State men's basketball team – minus point guard George Marshall, per NCAA transfer rules – heads to Brazil on Sunday to embark on a 10-day, four-game trip.

There are two basic questions facing the club: How will the international tour help forge its identity? Should it avoid swimming in open waters during down time?

Coach Scott Nagy admitted to having no knowledge of the latter. The former is pretty up in the air, too, as the Jackrabbits will have nine new contributors in the mix this season. Arguably, senior forward Cody Larson and junior wing Jake Bittle are their only proven commodities, although senior wing Zach Horstman and sophomore guard Anders Broman also had stretches of steady play in 2013-14.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Nagy said. "There's a lot to figure out in terms of how we want to play and pace of play and just with our personnel. We just have a lot of young guys. Really what we need to be working on is fundamental stuff, too, and it's hard to do that because we need to get in basketball shape."

Plus, the teams will be played under FIBA rules meaning the shot clock is 24 seconds instead of 35.

The last time the Jackrabbits did an international tour, they rolled through four games against two clearly inferior teams in Winnipeg. This time, Nagy is under the impression that they'll play 2 of 4 games against professional clubs.

The schedule will be strange, too, in that SDSU arrives Monday and plays Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday. The final contest will be near the end of the trip. That crunch is partly by design as freshman Reed Tellinghuisen has to return early to the States to attend a wedding.

There will be time for sightseeing, too, mostly in Rio de Janeiro. Questions about safety in the city of 6.2 million people were eased during the World Cup – not to mention that the Jacks will be accompanied by some tour guides. Instead, their concerns will be basketball-centric.

"This trip's going to help," Nagy said. "It'll help settle some things in our minds, and it'll show some of the players what's expected."

Terry Vandrovec also posts regular updates on his Twitter page.