Vatican visit breathtaking experience for UT players

Greetings from Italy: Knapke checks in with daily blog

8/13/2017

Knapke

University of Toledo sophomore center Luke Knapke documents the men’s basketball team’s trip through Italy for The Blade.

As a Catholic, our trip to the Vatican today was really special to me. The artwork we saw throughout our tour was spectacular and beautiful. It was really breathtaking. It was something that I’ve always wanted to experience, and I’m really lucky to get that opportunity. The Sistine Chapel was amazing with the paintings on the ceiling by Michelango as well as the walls telling stories of what happened during the time of Christ. We were also able to walk through Saint Peter’s Basilica during our tour and that was way beyond my expectations.

We didn’t have much time to rest after walking back to our hotel and my legs felt heavy. We’ve been on our feet a lot the last three days with sightseeing and our first game on Friday night. It was great to see Taylor (Adway) have a big game tonight. He’s developed his game a lot in the off-season and his scoring and rebounding tonight really helped us expand our lead in the second half.

— Luke

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ROCKETS WIN: Toledo won its second straight contest over Serbian club team KK Kolubara on Saturday evening in Rome, posting a convincing 92-67 victory after touring the Vatican earlier in the day. The Rockets will depart for Florence Sunday morning with their next contest coming on Monday.

“The team we played the past two days was an older group that was very physical,” head coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “They were the best team I’ve seen during any of the four previous foreign trips I’ve been a part of as a coach. Hopefully the team we play on Monday in Florence can be just as good or even better.”

Junior forward Taylor Adway topped the Rockets with 21 points and 11 rebounds and knocked down 10-of-12 attempts from the field.

“Taylor has been playing well and I’m really happy to see him have a game like he did tonight,” Kowalczyk said. “He’s a guy who’s really active on the glass and is the only player who’s going to start every game for us on this trip. Taylor is someone we’re going to need this season and it’s important that he play a lot of minutes in Italy.”

Joining Adway in double digits was junior forward Nate Navigato with 14 points and 5 rebounds. Senior guard Tre’Shaun Fletcher and sophomore forward Willie Jackson each had 11 points.

“I just made shots tonight and it was a good team win,” junior forward Taylor Adway said. “We’re seeing a lot of great things and learning a lot on our trip, but the one thing that's in the back of our minds is to get better as a team.”