Summer Recap Blog 2025 and Career Update - Blog #31

Blogs are back by popular demand for the 2025-26 season. Next week I will start with my regular blogs. Here is my summer recap!

Summer Recap:

It was an awesome summer to say the least. Coming off an amazing trip to the South of France with Nikki, we packed up in Leiden and headed back home. We had an awesome greeting at the airport from Ellie and Stacy (Nikki's sister and mom), who surprised us with signs at the MKE airport. We got back a couple of days before my older brother, Dominic's, wedding in Madison. We welcomed Sydney to the fam and had an absolute blast in Madison. The best dance floor I have ever been a part of. They will be talking about "Love Shack" at the Cartier wedding at the Madison Club for years to come. We had a nice boat day on the Friday before the wedding which was fun too. Post-wedding hang was a blast at the KK. This was probably the highlight of the summer.

I spent a lot of my summer doing basketball training with high school and middle school kids at Marquette HS and Brookfield East High School. It was a lot of fun to work with a bunch of kids and see little improvements, although it was a short time. As many of you know, I have struggled with lingering back issues for the last couple of years. I have had a lot of treatments to help me deal with the pain better, but I failed to address the root issue. I have/had a fairly weak core, glutes, and hips. I also had tight hamstrings. I worked insanely hard this summer with my guy, Glen, who specializes in back issues. We strengthened all the aforementioned muscle groups as they were probably the most difficult workouts of my life. Now, I am definitely not out of the woods quite yet, but I took a huge step in rehabbing and prehabbing future injuries. I am feeling a lot better. I can't say enough good things about Glen and my experience with him this summer. I was also able to work out with my high school coach, Joe Rux, who does a great job with basketball skill workouts.

The weekend after the wedding, I had a boys' trip in Nashville with my Hillsdale buddies. It was so dang fun and was a much-needed time spent with those boys. I don't think we had all been together since I graduated in 2022. So many laughs and good times. We hit Broadway St. a couple of times, did TopGolf, and also checked out Midtown. Our Airbnb was sick. It was immaculate vibes and will definitely have to be a yearly thing for us.

I got back on Sunday, and Nikki picked me up from ORD after a weekend with her college friends to go straight to my nephew, Carter's, 2nd birthday party. It was a great celebration with some family before Nikki and I headed up north to her family's place in Boulder Junction for the week of the 4th.

Densing's Deadend was awesome per usual. Tons of games, laughs, boat rides, biking, and pickleball. We were there for a full week, and it was a great time to be in nature and reset a little bit with Nikki. My favorite new activity that we did was e-biking. The Pinks got two very nice, fat-tire electric bikes that are perfect for off-roading. Joe took me on a really fun ride through the northern woods. We went through tall grass, around fallen trees, and avoided big puddles. The only downside was that when we returned to the cabin, we discovered that we had roughly two dozen ticks on us each. Nikki and I also took the bikes out a couple of times, and we both aren't sure if we will ever go back to regular bikes. Fun week with great company all around.

After returning from Up North, Nikki headed out a couple of days after. It was very sad, considering the uncertainty of our situation because of the nature of overseas hoops. She was leaving, and we did not know the next time that we would see each other again. It is something we have to deal with for the time being... which sucks.

I did an impromptu trip with my parents to Toronto for the Coldplay concert (no, it was not the show with the CEO debacle). It was an unbelievable concert and was totally worth the long drive. We were able to explore Toronto a little bit, but the concert venue was in an awkward location, so we had to spend some time getting to and from the venue. We arrived day of the concert and left right after as well. We booked hotels along the route, and it was fun, quality time spent with the rents. On the way back, my parents dropped me off in Chicago to hang with old Hillsdale teammates, Cole and Eric. I also surprised all of Nikki's friends and showed up to Kara's birthday party. It was a ton of fun seeing everyone, great weekend overall.

The weekend after, I went to Minneapolis to visit with my brother Dominic, my high school friend Dominic, Josiah, and some CSU people who are now working at Minnesota. I was also able to grab breakfast with Ev in Madison who was in town for the Coldplay concert on my way to the Twin Cities. Immediately upon arrival, I went to the U of M to check out the Gopher facilities on Saturday. They were pretty amazing. I worked out with Josiah and then went out to lunch with him and my guy, Joe De Ciman. Unfortunately, Cooley, Medved, and Katsuma were all out recruiting. I can't wait to see that program get turned around. I spent some quality time with the newlyweds on Friday night afterwards. I spent most of Saturday hanging with Dom Mussatto. We went for a nice walk and went to a cool brewery. I headed back Sunday morning. It was a great weekend.

A couple other summer highlights: spent some time at the O'Brien's in the OC at their amazing lakehouse, watched my boy, Nut, finish a triathlon, went to two Brewer games, and checked out the Wisconsin State Fair for the first time in like 10 years. Great summer! It was very hard saying goodbye to family, especially Carter. But, it's part of the dream!

I went overseas about a week early to meet up with the Pinks in Italy. They were just finishing a backpacking trip in the Dolomites which is part of the Alps in northern Italy. I met them just south of Bari in Monopoli/Polignano which is where Nikki's cousin and recurring blog "guest", Dani, is living with Andrija, Lili, and Emmy. We ate great food and explored a few really cool cities. It was fun to spend time with Nikki because we hadn't seen each other in about a month. Lots of gelato and quality time spent with everyone. We had a wine tasting at Dani's apartment. We went out for delicious dinner with everyone and ate amazing seafood. We planned on going on a boat for a few hours to cruise around and check out some caves. We took Dramamine just in case it would be wavy, and it was. I felt very sick, and Lili actually blew chunks. Andrija caught the vomit which was an awesome dad move, but we headed back after that. I do not do well with motion sickness, and even with the Dramamine, I was thankful that Lili needed to be back on shore. I did too and did not want to be the reason we cancelled the boat. Nikki and I also went out to an amazing dinner just us two after the Pinks left. It was a great trip. I had a flight out of Bari at 9 am which is relatively early for a flight, so I was supposed to leave Polignano at 6:30 am. There was a little mix-up with taxi driver, and I left an hour late. The guy that picked me up drove, thankfully, like an absolute maniac to the airport. It was a fun ride to say the least. I arrived at the airport like 20 minutes before my gate was scheduled to close. The line at Ryanair for luggage was insane. They have this new process to do luggage tags and then, you have to get in line the drop off the luggage. Well, both lines probably would have taken at least 1.25 hours to get through. God sent me an angel dressed at a Ryanair luggage worker, and she let me skip both lines to get to security and make my flight on time. I didn't make eye contact with anyone in line out of shame and felt terrible for skipping. I know there were a lot of pissed off people, but shoutout to Ryanair for helping me. Got to Poland all good!

Basketball:

I knew that the overseas basketball process could be a rollercoaster, but I really experienced it firsthand this summer. I do not want to get too into the weeds about the details, but long story short, I thought I would be returning to Leiden, and it did not work out. As many of you have seen, I signed to play in Zielona Gora, Poland, for this season. I have been here just over a week now, and I am really liking it so far. The basketball situation is definitely a step up from Leiden. They have more people on staff which is very nice. I am loving the coach, the guys, and the facilities. It will be a good season! I am already missing Nikki, and this year will be a challenge for us. I was able to get some flights for her in my contract which is clutch, but it will still be difficult. Being this far away from home is tough but having Nikki with me last year made it much easier for both of us. We will look forward to visits and will have lots of FaceTimes! Also, no info yet about how our games will be streamed. We are still waiting to find out.

Blogs this year will be the same format as last year. I started to run low on leadership lessons, so I might end up doing a "leader highlight" to focus on the leadership of a specific individual that I admire. Everything else will be roughly the same. If you have any suggestions, I am always open to it!