May 15, 2006
Park Ridge, Ill. - In addition to taking her Illinois squad overseas for a Tour of Italy later this month (May 22-June 1), head coach Theresa Grentz will also be leading the Big Ten Foreign Tour in July. The Big Ten women will be competing in Denmark and Sweden from July 18-28, while the men, coached by Michigan's Tommy Amaker, make their trip with games in Australia from August 8-18. Last year during the 2005 Foreign Tour, the men's and women's teams posted a combined 7-3 record. The women produced an unblemished 5-0 mark in Belgium and the Netherlands while the men went 2-3 in Spain.
Both teams will be making their 14th trip overseas this summer, as the men's tour began in 1991 and has been held every year since with the exception of 2000 and 2003. The women's team started a year later in 1992 and has competed annually except for 2003. Grentz's and Amaker's rosters will be solidified next month and the teams will gather for training camps in Champaign and Ann Arbor, respectively, prior to departure.
Grentz, who recently completed her 32nd year overall and 11th at Illinois, became the 10th Division I coach to reach 650 victories in her career during the 2005-06 season. Last year, she directed the Fighting Illini to a 16-15 record, marking the ninth time in the last 10 seasons that the Orange and Blue have ended the year above the .500 mark. Under Grentz's tutelage, Illinois has advanced to the postseason nine times, including five NCAA Tournament appearances.
In his fifth season at the Michigan helm, Amaker led the Wolverines to a 22-11 overall record, their second 20-win season in three years, while also reaching the finals of the National Invitation Tournament. He has compiled an 87-70 record in Ann Arbor and boasts a career mark of 155-125 in nine seasons overall. During the 2005-06 season, Michigan won back-to-back games against ranked opponents for the first time in 12 years (1993-94) and also tallied the highest defeat over a top-25 foe under Amaker with a 72-64 triumph against No. 8 Illinois on Feb. 21, 2006. With those wins, the Wolverines cracked into the top 25 polls for the first time in eight years, reaching as high as No. 20 during the season.
The Big Ten Foreign Tours have given more than 292 student-athletes the opportunity to travel abroad, as the men have toured such places as Spain, Japan, France, Italy, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, England and Ireland while the women have traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, France and Switzerland. In 13 years, the men's teams have posted a 51-34 record while the women's teams have gone 51-18 over that same span.
The teams, which each consist of 12 players (one from each conference school and two from the head coach's team), will be announced by the Big Ten at a later date.
