When administrative assistant Travis Conlan was hired by Michigan basketball coach John Beilein in late June, he quickly got to work on his first task: scheduling a foreign trip for the team, something he was very qualified to handle. Conlan, who played for the Wolverines and graduated in 1998, played professional basketball in Europe for 10 years. Six of those years were in Belgium, where the team will be traveling.

On Saturday Aug. 21, the Wolverines will arrive in Belgium and have very little time to acclimate themselves as they take the court against Ghent at 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) on Sunday.

“They’re gonna be stronger, obviously a lot smarter, because they’re older but what we’re going to have to do is pester them a little bit with our enthusiasm.” Conlan said of the foreign opposition. “I didn’t like it when young guys would get all into my stuff so I think that’s kind of our game plan and just to evaluate ourselves and see what we’ve got.”

Monday, they face off against Charleroi at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. EST) before taking a day trip to Paris on Tuesday. By Wednesday they’ll be back at the courts to take on Oostende at 8:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. EST). And Thursday, Michigan will battle Mons, Conlon’s former team.

The team will be touring Amsterdam on Friday before returning stateside Saturday.

For the young Wolverines, whose roster boasts 11 freshmen and sophomores, the trip to play older, more experienced foreign teams could seem daunting. Conlan spoke of the importance of the experience trumping the wins and losses.

Beilein has been impressed with his young players stepping up and intends on rotating a freshman into a starting spot each game. His intention is to start his most experienced players — juniors Stu Douglass and Zak Novak, sophomore Darius Morris and redshirt freshman Blake McLimans.

“We have some sponges on this team that really want to get better,” Beilein said of his young squad. “We have a very good attitude for people increasing their learning curve to college basketball in a shorter fashion.”

One of those sponges Beilein referred to was the 6-foot-9 freshman forward Jon Horford, who has been asserting himself in practice and making his presence known as a big man for Michigan.

The four true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen will have the unique chance to skip straight from high school competition to international experience, completely bypassing college competition until the Wolverines start up their games in November.

“We’ll have to learn on the fly. It’s going to be a really quick transition,” Horford said “We’re obviously not as experienced as the teams were going to be playing over in Europe so we’re all going to have to learn quick and work together.”