Two of the most enduring memories for the Belmont men’s basketball team were seeing the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona and touring the nearly completed Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, the soon-to-be new home of Real Madrid’s soccer team.

The Bruins toured Spain for 10 days, stopping in Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona, and actually did play three basketball games but the trip had value beyond the court.  

“The primary goal is to give this team a great experience, being together has far-reaching benefits,’’ said Belmont coach Casey Alexander. “We were together 20 straight days, 10 for practice (in Nashville) and 10 in Spain, that really accelerates our team building.

“It had very little to do with seeing how good we are or winning games. The players and myself are grateful to Belmont for allowing us to have such a great experience.’’

For the record, Belmont went 2-1, beating Madrid Select, 99-97, and CC Basketball Academy, 96-62, before losing to Catalonia Elite, 99-92. It’s difficult to say how tough the competition was.

“As far as foreign tour standards, I’d give it a C plus,’’ said Alexander. “The way I look at it, anything that’s not a waste of time is good. We got out of it what we wanted to get out of it.

“Every player, and that includes walk-ons, played the same amount. I would substitute five guys at time. They’d play three minutes, then sit three minutes. There wasn’t a lot of fluidity.’’

With team building well under way, Alexander will next turn to more on-court requirements when the Bruins being practice in the fall. The on-court benefit of the tour is that new players got to play with returning veterans. Those two groups have to mesh for the Bruins to be successful this season.