Syracuse, N.Y. - One year ago, Marek Dolezaj came to Syracuse from his home in Slovakia.
He didn't know anything about the culture. He didn't know his new Syracuse teammates. He spoke very little English.
"It was hard,'' Dolezaj recalled. "I cannot use my language here because there's almost no one here from my country. I remember in the media day, it was hard.''
A year later and Dolezaj has returned to Syracuse from Slovakia where he spent the past month with his parents in Bratislava. It was his first opportunity to return home since arriving in Syracuse last August.