Forget the Maui Classic, forget the Great Alaska Shootout, and pay no attention to the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands.
The travel season has begun early for dozens of college hoops teams who are allowed to take a trip abroad every few years as kind of a preseason for the upcoming college basketball season.
Coaches can use this time to give their young teams some valuable experience or use as a recruiting tool to show potential recruits that they take a cool trip every few years.
Here is the list of who's going where:
LSU Italy May 17-27
Mississippi State Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris Aug. 5-15
Villanova France, Netherlands Aug. 7-16
West Virginia Italy Aug. 8-21
Texas A&M Switzerland, France Aug. 8-17
Iowa State Italy Aug. 9-19
Illinois Italy Aug. 10-20
Louisville Bahamas Aug. 10-14
Baylor Toronto Aug. 11-16
DePaul France Aug. 11-21
California Sweden, Norway, Denmark Aug. 12-22
USC Brazil Aug. 12-21
Georgetown China Aug. 13-24
Duke China, Dubai Aug. 14-26
Virginia Tech Canada Aug. 16-18
Oregon Italy Aug. 22-Sept. 2
Stanford Spain Sept. 3-14
Northern Iowa Brazil Aug. 1-9
Murray State Canada Aug. 4-9
North Florida Canada Aug. 4-10
La Salle Canada Aug. 6-9
Hawaii China, Japan Aug. 6-21
Wichita State Brazil Aug. 7-18
Ball State Canada Aug. 8-16
Dayton Amsterdam, Paris Aug. 8-18
Illinois State Canada Aug. 8-13
UTSA Australia Aug. 9-19
Drake Australia, New Zealand Aug. 10-20
Wright State Italy Aug. 10-20
Central Florida Canada Aug. 10-15
Creighton Bahamas Aug. 11-17
Stony Brook Ireland, England, France Aug. 11-22
UMKC Italy Aug. 11-20
Duquesne Canada Aug. 12-15
Elon Germany, Italy Aug. 12-22
Oakland Canada Aug. 13-15
Fairfield Italy Aug. 15-25
BYU Greece Aug. 15-27
UT-Arlington Vancouver Aug. 16-23
Albany Canada Aug. 19-25
Saint Louis Canada Aug. 19-29
Santa Clara Vancouver Sept. 5-10
I believe three of the Duke games in China are going to be televised on ESPN (imagine that) and how about Cal's trip to Scandinavia, Stanford to Spain, and Drake to Australia and New Zealand. Great spots. And how about Duke's side trip to Dubai. You can do that when you are Duke.
