International recruiting efforts at Wyoming and Arizona lead to university name changes

By ALAN WALLS

Welcome to the tenth edition of The International Basketball Opinion, the world’s newest and only blog specifically dedicated to international basketball news, business and current events.

Flashing back to 1996 when the top-ranked University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team suited up three Israeli imports, including two-time All American and national co-player of the year Yuval Katz, many opposing coaches and members of the media referred to Rainbows as the University of Tel Aviv at Honolulu.

Fast forward to 2020 and the flow of international talent into American universities has only increased, especially in basketball. There are no better current examples than those of the University of Wyoming women’s and the University of Arizona men’s teams.

So much so, that Wyoming should consider a name change to the University of Europe at Laramie while Arizona should relabel itself the Arizona International University.

The Wyoming Cowgirls eight-player 2020 recruiting class is dominated by six international players; five from Europe (Greece, Iceland, Spain, Croatia and Poland) plus one from Australia. They also return an additional Spaniard from last season for a total of seven expats for the 2020-21 season, if there is one...

The UA Wildcats made a big splash yesterday with the commitment of Europe’s top college prospect Azuolas Tubelis from Lithuania. The 6-foot-9.5 forward will be joined by his 6-foot-7 twin brother Tautvilas for a mouth-watering two-for-one combo.

The Tubelis brothers are just two of six foreign recruits in the Arizona 2020 recruiting class with the other four coming from France, Turkey, Estonia and Haiti via Canada.

Add those six to the three freshman imports from Australia, Italy and Cameroon on last year’s roster and you get a total of nine globetrotters convening in Tucson.

Wyoming and Arizona are following the proven game plan that has allowed West Coast Conference foes Saint Mary’s College and Gonzaga University to become perennial top-25 teams, and in Gonzaga’s case, one of the top men’s basketball programs in the country.

This past season Saint Mary’s had nine, yes 9, international players on its roster that led the Gaels to a 26-8 overall record and 11-5 in conference Four from Australia. Two from New Zealand. One each from Estonia, Latvia and England.

Saint Mary’s Global College?

Gonzaga rose to #1 in the rankings and finished the season 31-2 overall and 15-1 in the WCC with six international hoopers on the Bulldogs roster. France x 2. Serbia. Lithuania. Russia. Mali. GU also had three players from Texas – Texans will tell you Texas is its own country.

The University of the United Nations at Spokane?

So why so many foreign players, especially at non-traditional powers?

Simple really.

1. In order to compete with the big boys and girls, or actually become one as in the case of Gonzaga, non-traditions basketball schools and/or mid- and low-majors need to recruit outside-the-border to find high-major talent as they cannot regularly compete vs. the traditional blue blood programs for top American talent.

2. American boys grow up dreaming of playing for programs like Duke, North Carolina and Kansas while for girls it’s programs such as UCONN, Tennessee and Baylor. Foreign kids simply dream of playing “anywhere” in the US of A. It does not matter where or for whom.

Good strategy? No. Great one! American universities are global, and basketball is a truly global game. American universities attract and recruit the top students from around the world, basketball – and all sports – should be no different.

Does bringing in international players take scholarships away from Americans? Yes, of course. Is that a bad thing? No. Not at all. It raises the bar on competition and quality of play. Survival of the fittest. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Competition and diversity bring major benefits to college programs on a micro-level and college campuses on a macro-level and should be welcomed, and encouraged.

Having coached men’s basketball at the low-major University of Northern Colorado, located 100 miles to the south of Laramie, Wyoming, and having experienced the unforgiving winters of the region (though mild compared to my time coaching in Mongolia, but I digress…), I can say that Laramie is definitely “anywhere”.

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Author Alan Walls is an American international basketball coach and administrator with over 25 years of experience on the youth, high school, NCAA, professional and national team levels in 16 countries and on five continents.  Walls has worked with the national federations of Turkey, Romania, Palestine, Mongolia, Kenya and El Salvador as well as coached or conducted camps and clinics throughout the United States – including his native Hawai’i – Mexico, Argentina, China, Hong Kong and Israel. Walls is the founder and General-Secretary of the United Nations of Basketball (2020 launch).