Rosborough pursues trip

By Tom Clegg

Men’s basketball coach Jim Rosborough would like to get his Huskies away from DeKalb next summer—far away.

The NIU coach is working on plans to have his squad travel to Europe for exhibition games in Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria.

Rosborough sees such a trip as being a “reward for the players.” However, he indicated that reward could be costly since funding for this type of trip would not be covered by the athletic department budget.

“We might have the kids pay a little bit,” he said. “We might have to turn to the community or the Huskie Club.”

Assuming enough money can be scrounged up, NIU could benefit from such an excursion in more ways than one.

“It might do things for the university,” Rosborough said. “It’s a value for recruiting. It’s a value for the kids as a team. You get some game experience for the younger people. Generally, teams who have gone on these things have had good seasons.”

Rosborough, who made a similar journey to South America as an assistant coach at Iowa, hopes the Huskies will enjoy the experience as much as the Hawkeyes did.

“The time we went to South America was a time they’ll remember for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Though Rosborough describes plans for the trip as being in the “tentative stage,” he is hopeful arrangements can be made.

“We have a long way to go, but it would be a good thing to do,” he said.