Apr. 3—The two coaching staffs that have the best grasp on recruiting internationally are both present in Indianapolis this week for the Final Four. Illinois, of course, went heavy on the Balkans for this year’s roster and has six total international players on its roster:
* Croatia — Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic, Toni Bilic
* Greece — Andrej Stojakovic
* Montenegro — David Mirkovic
* Serbia — Mihailo Petrovic
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was the point man internationally when he worked for Mark Few at Gonzaga. It was only natural he’d do the same with the Wildcats, whose roster has eight international players from eight different countries:
* Netherlands — Dwayne Aristode
* Australia — Anthony Dell’Orso
* Germany — Ivan Kharchenkov
* England — Jackson Cook
* Lithuania — Motiejus Krivas
* Senegal — Sidi Gueye
* South Sudan — Mabil Mawut
* France — Sven Djopmo
So it wasn’t surprising when both Underwood and Lloyd were asked about international recruiting during their respective press conferences Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Underwood broke down the difference between the international players Illinois has added and the former G League players trying to gain a foothold in college basketball.
“They don’t have an opportunity to play at the university level,” the Illini coach said. “They’re put into a system that allows them to play at the club level and on their junior teams and develop, and I think that’s the main difference. … But I’d argue in today’s world all these kids are finding opportunities that allow them to receive compensation. The one thing that I think we can’t lose sight of is high school kids are getting NIL now. We’re getting it in college.”
Lloyd discussed how NIL has changed the international recruiting market.
“I think it’s maybe opened a few more doors,” he said. “One of the detriments to international recruiting back in the day was if a kid wanted to get paid the European clubs could pay them legally, and, obviously, we couldn’t. Now that that hurdle has been taken away, you’re seeing more and more good players from Europe that are willing to come over.
“I think it’s going to settle down here in a little bit. With everyone trying to figure out this convoluted notion of who’s eligible, who’s not eligible, kids coming over at 21, I think that’ll settle down. All our international guys came over at 18, 19, so normally just had graduated from high school type of thing. I think we will see in the next year or two we’ll get back to that deal, and I hope it stays part of the game. It’s a global game and there’s a lot of good players over there, and I think it’ll help make the college basketball product stronger than ever.”
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