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Hinrichs caps busy summer by signing in Portugal

08/13/2015, 4:00pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Seth Hinrichs (above) leaves for Portugal just a few days after getting married. (Photo: Josh Verlin)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It’s been a busy few months for Seth Hinrichs.

First, of course, was the Patriot League championship in March and subsequent appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Then in May, just a few weeks shy of graduation, the Minnesota native flew home from the Lehigh Valley to propose to his longtime girlfriend Andrea.

Fast-forward a few months, and the high school sweethearts are getting married on Friday. Five days after that, he’s flying off to Portugal to begin his professional career.

So what’s more pressure-filled: playing in March Madness, the wait to sign a professional contract, or planning a wedding in four months?

“No comment,” Hinrichs said with a laugh. “I might get in trouble.”

Adding some stress to an already relaxing summer, Hinrichs was diagnosed with a stress fracture in May that he’d suffered during the season, and had to spend a good portion of the offseason in a boot, putting extra doubt in his mind about whether he would be a wanted commodity at the next level.

He needn’t have worried--in a stellar four-year career as a Leopard, he scored more than 1500 points, helping the team to its first Patriot League championship in 15 years. And his shooting ability (career 43.1 percent 3-point shooter) made him an attractive commodity on the overseas market, with offers coming in from countries like Germany and Spain.

Ultimately, Hinrichs signed with FC Porto, which plays in the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB), the nation’s top league.

For the 6-foot-8 small forward, signing that first contract was the realization of a lifelong dream.

“Playing basketball professionally, that’s all I’ve ever dreamed to do and it’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid,” he said. “It’s a great feeling, all that I’ve worked for, all the time’s paid off.”

FC Porto, which just earned promotion to the top-level league this season, is located in Porto, the second-largest city in the country of 10.5 million people.

The club’s team has an interesting history, as it was actually disbanded in 2012 after losing in the LPB championship, and restarted the following year in a third-tier league under the name DragonForce. After winning the second-tier ProLiga each of the last two years, they accepted promotion back to the LPB this season and went back under the name FC Porto.

Like most European professional basketball teams, FC Porto is part of an athletic club; its soccer team, also FC Porto, dates back to 1893 and is routinely amongst the top three teams in the Primeira Liga.

Thanks to his well-traveled college head coach, Fran O’Hanlon, Hinrichs learned that the coastal city is known as a fishing hotspot. The native of the Land of 10,000 Lakes couldn’t have heard much better news.

“I love fishing, so that’ll be like a great transition there, that’ll be something that I’ll enjoy,” he said. “Even my fiance and future wife loves to fish, too.”

In addition to playing in the LPB, FC Porto will also take part in this year’s inaugural FIBA Europe Cup, a competition that’s bringing together 56 teams from around the continent for additional experience and exposure. All 56 teams are broken up in four-team groups for round-robin play, with the top 32 teams moving onto another group stage and then bracket play.

FC Porto is in Group G with teams from Germany, Russia and the Netherlands.

Considering his entire European experience comes down to 10 days in Belgium and day trips to London, Paris and Amsterdam on a trip he took with Lafayette basketball back in 2013, he’s got plenty to look forward to in the next few months.

“I think living in a different country for nine months is going to be an adjustment but I’m excited for that,” he said. “Not that living in Pennsylvania was a different country, but moving away from home, I’ve got experience in regards to that so I think just seeing a whole different culture and being able to experience all of that will be really cool.”

Of course, none of that compares to what’s going on outside the basketball world.

“Being married,” he said, “that would be my first thing."