State College, Pa. - April 27, 2004 - Penn State Nittany Lion basketball coach Ed DeChellis will serve as head coach for the 2004 Big Ten Touring Team this summer, guiding a squad of selected Big Ten players through a slate of games in Italy from August 9-20.

The Big Ten Touring All-Stars are coming off a one-year hiatus after having gone 4-1 in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in the summer of 2002. The team is making its 12th trip overseas this summer, as the men's tour began in 1991 and has been held every year since with the exception of 2000 and 2003. DeChellis' roster will be solidified next month and the teams will gather for training camp in University Park prior to departure.

DeChellis returned to his alma mater as Penn State's head coach last season and guided a young Nittany Lions squad with two starting freshmen guards to nine victories, the most for the program in three years. DeChellis began his coaching career as a PSU graduate assistant from 1982-84. After a two-year stint as an assistant at Salem College, he returned to University Park in 1986 and began a successful 10-year run that included six postseason appearances and the school's transition into the Big Ten.

After helping the Nittany Lions to a school-record 12 Big Ten triumphs in 1995-96, DeChellis was named the head coach at East Tennessee State University. Taking over a team that had finished in last place prior to his arrival, the Buccaneers claimed three straight Southern Conference North Division titles in his final three years on campus, culminating with the school's first trip to the NCAA Tournament in more than a decade in 2003.

The Big Ten Conference Foreign Tours (including the women's team which will be coached by Indiana's Kathi Bennett) have given more than 244 student-athletes the opportunity to travel abroad, as the men have toured such places as Japan, France, Italy, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, England and Ireland while the women have traveled to New Zealand, Hungary, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, France and Switzerland. In 11 years, the men's teams have posted a 46-29 record.