By Andy Lohman

SMU men's basketball freshman forward Feron Hunt reached a milestone before even playing one game at Moody Coliseum: he traveled out of the United States for the first time.

From Aug. 11-17, Hunt and sophomores Ethan Chargois and William Douglas traveled to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands for a week of sightseeing and games with the Global Sports Academy against professional European competition.

"It was great," Douglas said. "There was a lot of really good competition."

"It was a lot more of a learning experience than I thought it would be," Chargois said. "It was so cool to experience it, to live a totally different way for a week or two."

The Mustangs would spend the mornings sightseeing, taking in historic cathedrals of Germany and the waterways of Amsterdam before playing games in the evening. The group competed in six games in the span of five days.

The schedule was packed, but the trip was a good opportunity for each of the players to grow.

"It gave me a chance to shoot the shots I've been working on all summer," Douglas said. "I got my confidence up a little bit, just making plays and handling the ball a little bit more."

The format of trips like these puts players from colleges from across the country together on the same team to face international competition. Jimmy Whitt Jr. and Isiaha Mike went on a similar trip to Italy this summer. Sometimes it takes a while for those players to gel.

"The first game was rough because we didn't know each other," Chargois said. "But as we went sightseeing together I feel like we kind of bonded and started playing better. But personally, I played pretty well throughout the tournament. I had 20 [points] in three of the six games. Will played pretty well as well. I feel like my game grew a lot, just from a team standpoint."

For Hunt, who said he loved the waffles in Belgium, the high-level experience will help ease the difficult transition from high school to college basketball.

"I was able to play against some older guys, kind of got me ready for [college basketball] a little bit," Hunt said. "It was a confidence builder."

The lasting memory for the Mustangs will be getting to experience the trip with each other.

"The bonding for the most part, just being able to hang out with my friends, Feron and Ethan," Douglas said. "This is Feron's first year here so we got to spend a lot more time together than a normal freshman would have on a different occasion. That was pretty cool."

"Being able to be over there with Will and Ethan, some of my teammates, it was just a fun experience," Hunt said.