“I’ve been to Rome twice. When you go with a group like that, you have to go to Rome,” he said. “But I’d be fine if I never went to Rome again. It’s just a big city that has some history.”
Nagy may have had to fight a been-there-done-that mood, but he wasn’t curmudgeonly about every part of the July 27-Aug. 6 trip.
“Florence is great, and so are Tuscany and Cinque Terra. Como to me was the best. Everybody had their favorites. For me, it was Como,” he said.
Nagy’s main goal was to find a balance between work and play. They had several practices and two games, neither of which was competitive.
“Honestly, my biggest concern was not getting them overly turned-up that time of year. I don’t want to get them burned out. We were just very, very basic,” he said.
“The first game was the best game in terms of being challenged with guys who can challenge us, and we made 18 threes and played pretty well.
“The second game, we were tired, and we were playing a team that was pretty young. Our players didn’t feel challenged. It wasn’t a great game for us. I had to shut my brain off or I was going to kill somebody.”
Tanner Holden, who transferred back to Wright State after one year with Ohio State, traveled and played with the team. But the former first-team All-Horizon League wing is still in limbo.
Transfer rules allow a player to change schools once without sitting out a year, but not twice. There is an appeal process with the NCAA, though, and the Raiders have filed a waiver on his behalf.
“My guess is it’s going to be dragged out longer (than many hoped),” said Nagy, who knew not expect a quick resolution since fall-sports appeals needed to be heard first. “They’ve been pretty slow on football and volleyball. It could be November before we know.
“I was thinking the other day: For the league and coaches and media and everybody to pick (a preseason poll), not knowing what’s going to happen with Tanner is going to be a big dilemma.”
The Raiders, who finished 18-15 last season after the surprise transfers of Holden and center Grant Basile, could be a league contender even if they don’t get a favorable ruling.
They return four starters, including first-team all-league pick Trey Calvin and freshman of the year Brandon Noel, along with every significant sub.
Noel has been sidelined with mononucleosis and an undisclosed injury but is expected to be cleared by mid-September.
“Somebody asked me the other day who has surprised me this summer. I don’t think anybody has. Maybe it’s because I have such high expectations of the guys that I don’t feel surprised by them,” Nagy said.
The eighth-year coach stayed overseas after the Italy trip to fulfill one of his bucket-list items: a visit to Israel and the Holy Land, where Christians believe Jesus lived, died and was resurrected.
His daughter, Natalie, was accepted into an advanced program for competitive dancing in Tel Aviv, which made the drive to Jerusalem manageable.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Nagy, a longtime Christian. “When you read about the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus first met Peter and other disciples), we were THERE. We went to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. And we saw a lot of Old Testament places, too.
“We were in the Cave of Adullam where David wrote a couple of his Psalms. He wrote from the cave we were sitting in! We were in Samson’s hometown and were looking across the valley and seeing where he met Delilah. We went to Mount Carmal where Elijah confronted the 450 prophets of Baal.
“It’s hard for me to pick just one place (that stood out). Every day, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”
Nagy said he’s is still processing the whole experience, but he believes it’s taken his faith to another level.
“It makes the Bible come alive,” he said.
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