By Ruben Alcaraz
Europe is a new recruiting way for American colleges. Last weekend, two ACC teams and one Big East program came to CBA (Spain) to check possible recruits. Why powerful NCAA programs come to Europe to recruit? Rusty LaRue, assistant coach of Wake Forest University told us their reasons: “Basketball is a global game, is important for Wake Forest and some schools to get the best players possible from United States or overseas. A lot of former European players did it really well in college, several played at Wake Forest and we look everywhere to find players.” Ed Cooley, the new head coach of University of Providence thinks in the same way: “Basketball is a global sport and we want to come over to look out what talent is here.” Another head coach with a new job like Brian Gregory, Georgia Tech, told us his experience about this question: “My past experience said me that the players here are highly skilled and very coachable and that makes the transition to college basketball easier.” Gregory have good memories about one of his Europeans recruits, Erazem Lorbek: “Yes, he was only one year at Michigan state but he was a starter, highly skilled he really knows how to play, great passer and he was a great recruit, he was such a good kid and good student and I wished that with stayed with more us.” Former Spartan Lorbek is actually one of the best post players in Euroleague playing for F.C. Barcelona.
Then, is better to recruit Europeans directly from the continent or is better that kids played before on a high school or a preparatory school? LaRue explains the difference: “When a player comes directly from Europe to USA he must learn the way the game is played in United States. American game is more physical, based more in athletics, one on one moves, and kids that never played in US shared more the ball, played more team, etc.” Cooley agrees: “Style of play. Seems like more fundamentals here, they really work on basic skills, rebounding, passing, dribbling, the fundamentals are really good here in Europe.”
How colleges starts the recruiting process? Gregory: “A lot of recruits that come from overseas and Europe is about to having a connection with someone, and from prep schools is word to mouth.” Cooley: “When you are evaluating, you get tips and we wanted to come and see a workout. And we are very very happy about this workout, kids practices really hard.” Head coach of Providence and his assistant coach Bob Simon were really impressed with the workout and how coaches works at Canarias Basketball Academy. LaRue’s impressions are in the same way: “I think Rob is doing a great job with his academy, great kids, they really work hard.” Why exists this difference between American and European? “I like the skill level of European players -say Gregory- because they can be coached more time. In United States we have a lot of restrictions with the time that we can spent with the players, this is the reason why you see more specific skill level of passing, ball handling of Europeans, Americans are more explosive and strong because they spent more time in weight room.”
However, not only American colleges show interest on European prospects. More and more, European kids consider college’s way the best for his future. LaRue explains his point of view about this reality: “Yes, I think is becoming more normal. I think more Europeans players are wanting to come to the USA also because only top European players go to professional league, start so young, with 17-18 you became a professional, and with 20 years, they don’t have time to mature like American does. When a kid makes 18 should decide about to going pro or going to America to play four years, get better and get a degree and education and when basketball finishes were over got something.”
How they follow the evolutions of European players during the year? Internet or live games? More or less everybody uses the same tools. “Both, live and internet” says LaRue. “In United States we have recruiting services that we are subscribed, we have websites like Rivals, Scout, Eurohopes, and social networks.” Cooley: “When you recruit you got to recruit through internet, word to mouth, studying reports, social networks and everything complain with NCAA regulation.” Gregory thinks that is very important the opinion of the kid’s coach, because he see the player every practice and game. “You must did research on internet but the coach says about the player is the most important thing to me.”
One of the best Europeans players that landed in NCAA in past years was the big Turkish Enes Kanter (’92). But Kanter was declared ineligible because NCAA estimates that he received money compensations when he played a few games with a professional Turkish team. What does they think about it? Gregory: “There is always a question when you bring a player from overseas : did he played professional before I came? And you should do your research and stuff. I don’t know much about this situation but Is a shame that kid came and never played.” LaRue also have an interesting point of view about Kanter’s case: “That’s the tough part of recruiting on Europe. Because the professional leagues find kids so young, and we must act very careful. 1- Find kids still available. 2- Academically OK to NCAA. 3- Not immature issues or never been paid. And 4- Be good enough. You should trust with people when you recruit when they said that never been paid.”
These opinions bring us to other question, can they recruit watching the player only one workout? “No. You must listen your partners, you need some contacts overseas.” Ed Cooley has it clear. “We use everything to evaluate a player, internet, videos, etc.” Cooley adds: “This is my first time physically in Europe but we are always trying to recruit players from Europe using internet.” Wake Forest have a little advantage respect other programs: “You prefer to see more, like 2, 3 , 4 times, but is tough in Europe. Wake Forest have a good budget and we can travel a lot and a lot of teams can’t. You ask people’s opinion and trust them” says LaRue, “In only one day we should to see a lot.” That’s because of dead period, and all of them follow strictly the NCAA recruiting rules.
Was the first time at CBA for these three coaches and all of them enjoyed this recruiting trip. Cooley told us: “Very good experience I’ll definitely back.” For LaRue was the first time that make a recruiting trip to Europe, and seems that Wake Forest will back to the academy this weekend. Gregory arrived Sunday morning and less than 24 hours later he was on his way to United States. Dead period. Like other colleges, he’ll be at CBA again this weekend. Like Gregory said: “Great experience here!”
