BTN To Feature Huskers' Trip To Italy

"I wanna run these dudes out of the gym. Play your ass off and have some fun."
 
"We're here at the Coliseum in Rome. Russell Crowe and I, fixin' to go at it. … He had no chance."
 
"It's good knowing y'all. I'm fixing on taking this thing on a hot spin."
 
"It's a privilege to play this game. I had it ripped away from me when they cut my chest open and I had heart surgery and I had to quit. You know what I would love to do one more time is get back out there."
 
"Ya ever hear of a guy named Chef Boyardee?"
 
"If you don't want to play then don't play; tell me right now. It's got nothing to do with Xs and Os. It's about trusting your teammate out there."
 
Well-versed Nebraska basketball fans can probably correctly attribute the above statements to either head coach Fred Hoiberg or his assistant, former Husker head coach Doc Sadler, but in case you're wondering for sure who said what, tune in Monday night to the Big Ten Network.
 
The conference's television network is airing consecutively three 30-minute episodes featuring the Nebraska basketball team's August trip to Italy. The series is entitled "The B1G Trip: Nebraska Basketball in Italy" and will begin airing at 7 p.m. CDT.
 
While BTN has featured Big Ten Conference athletic programs in its popular program, "The Journey," this is the first time the network has traveled overseas with a team for extensive coverage. (BTN sent a crew member to Italy for Michigan's football spring trip, but for highlights only, not a show).
 
Bill Friedman, the BTN senior coordinating producer, considered this idea when he learned the conference had a handful of teams traveling to Europe for summer exhibition trips, which the NCAA allows teams to do every four years. He initially thought of gathering bits and pieces from each of the teams and highlighting all of the schools in a series.
 
"But," Friedman said, "I think we all thought here that it might be a better arc to focus on one team from start to finish."
 
Nebraska became the logical choice for that one team, in large part because Hoiberg is not only entering his first season, but he's also building a team almost entirely of newcomers; only one Husker who played last season is returning.
 
"There was not only the intrigue of what they were going to see in Rome and Florence and Lake Como," Friedman said, "but also how are they going to come together as a team? These are people still trying to get to know each other."
 
Friedman and members of his crew flew to Lincoln in June to have discussions with Hoiberg about the series and the direction they wanted to take. They wanted his assurance, and got it, and then some.
 
"Nebraska's embrace on this was tremendous," Friedman said. "Everybody embraced us and our cameras being around and our group being around from start to finish, which is crucial to success for a project like this."
 
Only once, during halftime of the Huskers' final game, in the final episode, did Hoiberg politely ask for no cameras in the locker room (although BTN did gather audio). Otherwise, the production crew filmed every pre-game, halftime and postgame locker room speech, and it had Hoiberg wear a mic for all four games, all of which the Huskers won.
 
"It really was an up-close, personal look at the trip, both on and off the court," Friedman said. "We were in the loop as to what was going on and welcome to capture it."
 
In Nebraska's first game, in Rome, Friedman turned toward the crowd and was surprised to see a dozen or so Husker fans, most of whom were just randomly in the area and heard about the team's trip.
 
"What kind of dedication does that say?" Friedman said. "I literally walked over to these people and was like, 'What are you doing here?' That was their answer; they were on vacation in Italy and saw this and wanted to come to the game."
 
That includes the grandparents of freshman walk-on Charlie Easley, who were celebrating their anniversary with a trip to Italy and attended the Huskers' final game. Thorir Thorbjarnarson's parents also attended a game and are featured in the series.
 
Luca Virgilio, Nebraska's director of operations, is originally from Rome and greatly assisted Friedman's crew. He invited them to his family's home when the coaching staff visited for his mother's famous lasagna, a segment in the series.
 
"He couldn't have been more helpful, logistically, for us to get this done," said Friedman, who also thanked basketball media relations director Shamus McKnight and assistant director of operations Sheryl Burbach for their assistance.
 
"Luca really deserves a co-producer credit on this. We couldn't have done this without him," he said. "Really top to bottom, we felt welcomed. We felt part of the travel party immediately, from the coaches to the players to the other members of the travel party."
 
Sadler provides a great deal of humor throughout the series, including his test driving of a Ferrari. To give perspective to Sadler's addition to the staff, BTN revisited his emotional goodbye to Nebraska fans in a 2012 news conference.
 
"It's great seeing Doc back," Friedman said. "Doc is certainly one of the more captivating characters of the three shows. Fred is kind of the main character throughout, and Doc is riding shotgun with him throughout the whole way."
 
Other members of Friedman's crew were Cody Shimek, director of photography; Nick Christopulos, head audio technician; Kevin Ritchie, feature producer; and Garrett Wright, junior feature producer. They arrived in Rome the day before the team did to prepare for the Huskers' arrival and departed the same day as Nebraska.
 
In Chicago, primary editors included John Castelli, managing editor for BTN; and freelancers Miguel Adad and Mike Masson.
 
"It was nice to be out of the country, from a life experience. We were on our own," Friedman said. "We don't speak the language. We don't have our truck with extra gear we usually bring. We had to really plan. If something broke, we were going to have to trouble shoot that."
 
Overall, Friedman voiced pleasure with his team's final product.
 
"To me, what was great was seeing, capturing, the new experience from a basketball standpoint," he said, "and from a life experience."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.