Andreas Schreiber: Professional Ballplayer

It's been a busy summer for former Penn basketball player Andreas Schreiber.

After working out in Houston for the first part of the summer, Schreiber lent his talents to the Swedish national team as he awaited a possible European professional contract. With Schreiber's help, the Swedish men, ranked #67 in the world according to FIBA, were victorious in European qualifier games against Romania, Albania, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. The wins came without the help of Sweden's lone NBA player, Pistons forward Jonas Jerekbo.

"Personally I felt like I really grew as a player over the summer," Schreiber wrote in an email. "A lot of my role was just being overly physical, bringing energy and making sure the big guy didn't get the ball, and I feel that UPenn prepared me very well for this. They allow a lot more contact here, so I don't get the fouls I use to in America. I've realized that it is a totally different game over here; something that has actually benefited me. But the intensity, grit and hustle of the college game has really allowed me to grow as a role player on the national team."

Then, at the end of a successful yet stressful summer of wondering where he would land, Schreiber got exactly what he was hoping for: a professional contract to play basketball in Spain. "Spain was my dream country," Schreiber wrote. "What excites me is the culture, the food, the people, the weather, but most of all the great basketball of course."

The club with which he'll start his professional career is CB Tarragona, located in the city of, you guessed it, Tarragona, a coastal town about 60 miles from Barcelona. The team plays in the LEB Oro, Spain's second division. A couple of interesting facts: Schreiber will room with California native and former Memphis guard, Roburt Sallie and one of Schreiber's new teammates is former Temple Owl and Spaniard, Sergio Olmos, who Schreiber played against during his sophomore year at Penn.

For his basketball services, Schreiber said his contract will pay him a net salary with agent costs and taxes being footed by the team, as well as the majority of his living expenses.

He joins two classmates already playing professionally: Jack Eggleston, now with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, and Conor Turley, with Pioneros de Quintana Roo in Cancun, Mexico.