Idaho men's basketball player Arkadiy Mkrtychyan spent his summer traveling, visiting family and eating plenty of his mother's soup.
 
Mkrtychyan did this while playing for Team Armenia in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Pre-Qualifiers.
 
"It was amazing," he said. "It was a great experience to play against pros for a national team. I played with guys like Ryan Boatright, Andrew Chrabascz and Luke Fisher from Marquette."
 
Armenia is a mountainous nation, formerly part of the USSR, bordered by Turkey to the west, Azerbaijan to the east and Iran to the south.
 
Mkrtychyan was born in Turkmenistan, located east of Armenia, across the Caspian Sea. He moved north to Russia, before living in Hawaii and ultimately finishing high school in Portland.
 
Mkrtychyan had played for an Armenian national team before. This time, the Basketball Federation of Armenia reached out to Mkrtychyan to ask if he would be interested in playing for them.
 
"I said, 'Of course,'" he said. "That's a great opportunity for me to get out there, as a senior, to get a contract."
 
There were some challenges playing for a team overseas.
 
"Half our team didn't speak English and half our team spoke only English," he said. "I speak both languages, Russian and English, so I was like the translator between our doctor, between coaches and players, it was kind of interesting and fun."
 
With Armenia's history as part of the USSR, most citizens speak Russian and Armenian, the official language.
 
Mkrtychyan said he's strong for a college basketball player.
 
"I'm definitely not strong enough for pro," he said.
 
Mkrtychyan was surprised to see a change in European basketball.
 
"They got a little closer to American playing style," he said. "America is known to be more physical and athletic than everybody else. In Europe, it's just a little different but it's still physical, but I was surprised with how physical it was."
 
The main difference, he said, was speed.
 
"Pro goes a lot faster than college," he said.
 
Team Armenia played six games in under three weeks. The team opened play with a win against Slovakia at home Aug. 2, then handily defeated Sweden on Aug. 5.
 
In the European bracket, there were four groups. The top two teams from each group advanced to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers.  Armenia finished third in its group, the only group with four teams.
 
"We started really great," he said. "We beat Sweden and Slovakia. We were surprised to beat them by 16, 17 points," he said. "After those two games, we had to travel to another country to play Bosnia and Herzegovina."
 
Team Armenia took a three-hour plane ride to the small Southeastern European country.
 
"The game didn't go in a flow and we lost by about 25 points," he said. "After that, our team just started falling apart."
 
Mkrtychyan was happy for the learning experience, so he said he didn't take the losses personally.
 
"I don't mind it, I just tried to learn from it and get better," he said.
 
Mkrtychyan went to China with the men's basketball team last summer, so he applied the skills he learned playing with FIBA rules in China.
 
"It was the same style of play, more physical and fast," he said. "The main thing in Europe and people overseas do is they foul at the moments you don't expect. You just give up a foul if you're not in the double bonus."

Mkrtychyan said he struggled to find a rhythm in this new foul system.
 
"I got it like halfway through the tournament," he said. "If I have one foul and it's like third quarter and we can give up a foul, whack somebody, get a foul. That's a normal thing in Europe but here you get in trouble for that."
 
This summer also marked an important milestone for Mkrtychyan – his first trip home after leaving Russia at 15 years old, when he was only 5-feet, 10-inches.
 
Mkrtychyan father's side of the family lives in Moscow, Russia, so they took a two-hour flight to watch Mkrtychyan play.
 
"They haven't seen me since I left Russia," he said. "Now I'm 6' 7.""
 
Mkrtychyan said food was the best part about returning.
 
"The barbeque there is really good and soda. The soda has natural sugar and way less chemicals than here. They taste different, so I was drinking soda all the time," he said.
 
Mkrtychyan's parents own a house in Armenia, so he was able to enjoy some of his mom's soups.
 
"In Russia, we make a lot of soups, and in Eastern Europe as well," he said. "My mom made a lot of different soups and Russian foods. I was really happy about it."
 
He hasn't ruled out the NBA completely – but feels his talents are better suited abroad.
 
"That's my No. 1 goal right now to get the opportunity to play overseas, to get a solid contract somewhere in Europe, maybe somewhere in Asia," he said. "I don't see myself playing the NBA, but maybe after a few years overseas."