HAWK TALK

August 30, 2012

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The Last Pageā€¦ Blood sausage and physical play UI junior Zach McCabe enjoyed an experience of a lifetime in Estonia By ZACH McCABE Editor's note: Zach McCabe is a 6-foot-7 junior forward for the University of Iowa men's basketball team. The graduate of Sioux City (Iowa) Heelan High School shares his thoughts on a summer basketball trip he took to Estonia. Greetings Hawkeye fans! I had the opportunity to travel to Estonia in late July with the East Coast All-Star team, and it was an experience of a lifetime. The chance to play alongside some of the best players in the United States and compete against some of the top players in the world was a tremendous experience for me to grow as a player. On the flight to Estonia, it was eight hours and I was cramped in a little space, so I had a hard time trying to get comfortable on the way there They also gave us food on the flight, which was surprisingly good; I was shocked. While in Estonia their breakfast is interesting because they serve deli meats along with the normal breakfast food I also came along blood sau- sage, which I tried, and let's say i will never try something like that again! The second day we were in Estonia we were able to go sightseeing to some cool places. We saw this huge outdoor concert hall where they have the Estonian Song Festival We also had the chance to tour old town, which has a number of buildings from the 17th Century, and we saw the castle that once used to guard the city of Tallinn. The team and I got a chance to see the Baltic Sea, which was pretty neat, but unfortunately it was too cold to hang out on the beach We also saw the Estonia Parliament building, which was interesting because it was pink. We also learned that Estonia made Skype, which they are very proud of. The third day we had our first game and it was an eye-opening experience I have heard how physical it is playing international basketball, but it was something that is hard to prepare for We played the Czech Republic and they were a very good team Most of the national teams we played have been playing together for 10 years, so they knew how to play together. We played the Republic of Georgia in our next contest They had a couple NBA players on their team and many of fans at the game thought we had no chance to win We ended up beating Georgia in double overtime, which was an awesome experience to beat a great team like that. In the end we were defeated by Estonia, but I was proud of how our team played because of how physical the games were and how well we per- formed only having played with one another for a couple of days. I met a great group of guys while on this journey There was Quinn Cook (Duke), Marshall Plumlee (Duke), Dwight Powell (Stanford), Juwan Staten (West Virginia), Kevin Noreen (West Virginia), Nick Faust (Maryland), Brad Reford (Xavier), Michael Holton (St. Michael's), Kevin Anthony (Lycoming), and Jerald Williams (Lycoming) I had fun playing with them and getting to share this awesome experience together. Overall, I learned a lot of things from not only basketball, but seeing a whole different culture, which was pretty cool. I know that I will be able to use this experience and become a better player for this upcoming season! Go Hawks! 36

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