Intervista esclusiva di Backdoor Podcast a Travis Trice, ex Germani Brescia e Michigan State che ci racconta la sua carriera nel giorno del suo compleanno. Qui la versione inglese e in seconda pagina quella italiana.
Happy birthday, Travis Trice! He born January 22, 1993 in Springfield. on this occasion, Backdoor Podcast gains the opportunity to have a little conversation with Travis, remembering his few weeks in Brescia. Trice passed 4 college years under Tom Izzo at Michigan State and then began to travel around basketball world. Australia, Turkey, France, Italy and now Poland, with Slask Wroclaw. Now he guides Slask in Eurocup Group A (1-8 at the moment, 9th place). Read what he said to us earlier!
If you look back at months passed in Brescia, what do you remember? Do you still have contacts with teammates or staff members?
A lot of my teammates are not there anymore, but with some American player I’m still in contact with. I wasn’t in Brescia too long because of pandemic stuff and Covid. I don’t remember so much about Brescia because I stayed there only a couple of weeks.
Slask Wroclaw is a club with great history and tradition in Polish basketball (17 League trophies). Are you and your teammates aware of the weight of the shirt?
Yeah, for sure. You see in our practice facility and gym: you see all the banners up there, you see all the retired jersey and the Hall of Fame guys. You see how many championships each guy won here. We work every day to improve and try to achieve something like that. You gotta take it game by game, day by day: you can’t start the season saying “Ok, we’ll win the championship”. Tomorrow we’ll face Wloclawek: I’ve learned the historic and traditional value of this match up. The schedule of Polish League continues transforming and changing face. My Polish teammates are putting me into the game and the atmosphere we’re expecting to live. I’m definitely excited but you can’t overhype feelings: you gotta approach the game with the right mindset, just trying to execute and win.
Who’s the greatest opponent met in Group A of Eurocup 2021/2022? Which the worst squad to face?
It’s hard to pick one. It’s such a talented group with so many great teams, coaches. You don’t walk into a single game and think it’ll be an easy win.
How can you describe Tom Izzo in few words? Which are tips and lessons learned from your experience with Michigan State Spartans?
He’s superintense and focus on details and game preparation. He approaches everything we would do (championship, mindset, mentality) as he would coach a Final 4 game. He approaches everything as it would be a championship. He’s just intense in a walkthrough as he is in a game. What can I grab from him? Stay at such an high mental level, work on every accountable detail. If you face every matter with the same mentality, god things will come.
“No guts. No glory. No legend. No story” (quote from Twitter). Is this just a motivational statement to be remebered on the court?
You gotta back to my collage days, when I put that photo on Twitter… I totally forgot it because I don’t follow my Twitter account but it’s a cool quote. I’ll go back and reuse it!
