RebKell's Junkie Boards

[ClayK]

I've been watching the WCC tournament, and it's an interesting league.

USF -- the real USF -- is almost all Eastern European. Another program relies heavily on players from Australia and New Zealand, and many teams get lots of production from the South Pacific.

Several teams are pretty much all White, and there is not a lot of size.

Maybe other mid-major conferences have similar profiles, but the propotion of international players seems very high.

And despite many of the teams being in California, there aren't that many California players.

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[IM in OC]

[Durantula]

The PAC also has more international players than the other top conferences. So where are the west coast recruits going if more international players are taking up spots in WCC and PAC 12?

[IM in OC]

[ClayK]

St. Mary's: One very good player was stuck in Australia. Two other good ones were hurt who played only briefly but did play in the tournament.

In general, mid-majors are less able to cope with injuries and such because they lack the depth of a lot of P5 teams.

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[summertime blues]

It kind of depends on the conference as to where you get your recruits from. In the CAA, for instance, another mid-major conference, the only school that usually has a lot of non-US players is Hofstra, and they often have a bunch. (Hasn't helped them in recent years, though) Drexel and Northeastern may have a couple; Drexel's players seem to come mainly from PA, NY, and MD and Northeastern's from the New England area. Towson and UNCW recruit very locally. IIRC, Elon may have had one somewhere along the line, but their recruits seem to come mostly from the Carolinas, VA, MD, etc. JMU currently has two, one from Canada (she's now in the transfer portal) and one from Senegal who was a grad transfer this year; normally they recruit from VA, MD, PA and maybe NC but have had players from as far as VT and FL.

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Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohows permanent.
It takes 3 years to build a team and 7 to build a program.--Conventional Wisdom

[undersized_post]

A very general question that I've always wondered about: What entices international students to come play basketball for a mid-major USA college?

[myrtle]

[Durantula]

[ClayK]

I think there's still some glamor to living in the U.S., especially perhaps for an Eastern European. "Come live in San Francisco," coos Molly Goodenbour. "One of the great cities in the world, enjoy California, and please check the weather in Slovakia in January and then in California.

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[Howee]

[purduefanatic]

The ones I know pretty much all pointed to being able to get a free education while competing at a high level of a sport they loved. They were all extremely thankful for the opportunity to get so much at no cost to them except for travel to and from their home country.

[tfan]

I caught two tournament games one day (NBC Sports Bay Area??). I think it was St Mary's versus USF where they said that the tallest player among the teams (or players getting time on the court) had a roster height of 6'2". It was fun to watch a game where so many of the players were close in height. Made me think that a 6'0" and under league would be a good idea.

Santa Clara was wearing shorts that were tighter than the modern style and 3 or 4 inches shorter. And they had short sleeve shirts on which made their arms look shorter. At least it seemed like none of them were "lanky" or "long".

USF is a private school so it is harder to condemn, but I was thinking that publicly funded state schools shouldn't give scholarships to foreigners. But then again, I think they are state taxpayer funded, which really means they shouldn't give scholarships to anyone out of state. I took a few classes at a junior college in my area about 13 years go and looked at info on their WBB team and there were what appeared to be foreign students on that team. I know that some of the DI teams will have foreign players that initially played in a junior college. But that would be crazy if they got a full ride for those JC years.

But you see USF doing well versus the past and think that Molly Goodenbauer has "turned things around" and then when you find out only two players are Americans, it loses something for me.

[ThreeBall25]

Umm... wow. So much in that last post.