Purple Aces junior Ryan Sawvell is taking part in the Global Sports Academy and is currently on a 9-day trip through Europe.  He has graciously agreed to share his experiences in an online diary that will be updated throughout his trip and will provide an inside look at his experience!  Below is his summary of the second day of the trip:

Just wrapped up day two of the European Tour!  We ate breakfast at the hotel at 9am and after that we headed over to the gym to do a defensive clinic for some professional coaches.  We basically showed them basic man-to-man defensive principles and how we guard ball screens. After that we showered at the hotel and hopped on a bus to travel into Brussels.
 
I found out yesterday that we are staying in a small town 30 minutes outside of Brussels.  Upon our arrival, we were given a tour of the major monuments.  Brussels reminded me a lot of Chicago in the sense that there were people walking around everywhere, crowded streets and buildings / shops any direction you looked. Again, many people came up to us asking if we were American Basketball players and wanted to take pictures with us.
 
The people of Belgium are very nice, unique, and fun people!  After about 3 hours of walking around Belgium we made our way to the gym which was about a 15 minute bus ride. The arena we played in was very nice! There were about 100 people at the game.  The players said that they normally have a lot more fans at their games but they mentioned some type of holiday and almost everybody was traveling to see their families.
 
We played four 10 minute quarters and I played somewhere around 25 minutes.  I finished the game with 6 points and 10 rebounds.  The players here are very fundamentally sound and can shoot the ball very well.  Tomorrow, we are traveling to Ghent, Belgium for a game at 3pm. Wish me luck again!  See you guys tomorrow!