This summer lots of college coaches travelled to Europe to see different championships. It has been the year with more presence of american scouts trying to find some pearls for their teams. And watching our rankings we also can find many top level prospects already in USA with NCAA or school teams, and other ones already committed for next season but staying in their home countries one more year. A good example is the big attraction of the Canarias Basketball Academy, in Las Palmas (Spain). Every year more college coaches travel there to follow a big group of prospects getting ready to jump to the NCAA. The list of universities travelling is getting bigger, but also the level of the players there. This summer they signed dutch Shane Hammink ('94) and czech Petr Herman ('94). Important NCAA programs have this academy name written in their notebooks.
Let's see the bigger European names already in NCAA or schools (born in 1990 or later):
-Robert Gilchrist ('90, England): Will play at Florida State after a couple of years in an academy and a JUCO.
-Deniz Kilicli ('90, Turkey): Faces his third year in West Virginia, second playing after a banned season.
-Kyryl Natyazhko ('90, Ukraine): Faces his junior year at Arizona. He also played high school in USA.
-Andrey Semenov ('90, Russia): Four season for him at James Madison. He played HS in USA also.
-Dejan Kravic ('90, Bosnia and Herzegovina): He growed in Canada, where he played last seasons at York.
-Martins Abele ('90, Latvia): Transferred from Radford this summer. Now in Duquesne. We played in Oak Hill Academy before.
-Chris Czerapowicz ('91, Sweden): He landed at Davidson last year. He stays there.
-Gil Biruta ('91, Lithuania): Sophomore year for him in Rutgers. He played with St. Benedict's Prep before.
-Carl Engstrom ('91, Sweden): Second season in Alabama for this former handball player.
-Niels Giffey ('91, Germany): He won last NCAA championship with Connecticut.
-Wilfried Yeguete ('91, France): One more year in Florida. He sent good sensations in the U20 EC.
-Duje Dukan ('91, Croatia): Second season in Wisconsin after growing in Chicago.
-Dragan Sekelja ('91, Croatia): With less minutes in Baylor he landed in Florida Atlantic this summer.
-Patrick Heckmann ('92, Germany): First experience for him in USA. He will play for Boston College.
-Mathis Keita ('92, France): Second year for him in Gonzaga.
-Marko Gujanicic ('92, Serbia): Already landed in Stoneridge Prep.
-Alasdair Fraser ('92, Scotland): Second season at Maine.
-Mathis Mönninghoff ('92, Germany): Like Keita, also in Gonzaga.
-Olexiy Len ('93, Ukraine): Big sign for Maryland this summer.
-Tomasz Gielo ('93, Poland): One of the 1993 great polish generation members, to Liberty.
-Alexandru Olah ('93, Romania): Stays at Traders Point Christian School, in Indiana.
-Amedeo Della Valle ('93, Italy): Already signed for Findlay Prep, in Nevada.
-William Howard ('93, France): Arrived to New Hope Academy (Maryland) some weeks ago.
-Kevin Larsen ('93, Denmark): Second season for him in one of the best school programs, at Montrose Christian (Maryland).
-Stefan Jankovic ('93, Serbia): He growed in Canada and now is learning at Huntington Prep (West Virginia).
-Mislav Brzoja ('94, Croatia) -at the pic-: First season for him at Traders Point Christian with romanian Olah.
-Kyprianos Maragkos ('94, Greece): Decided go to USA this summer. He is at Blue Ridge, Virginia.
-Ioannis Papapetrou ('94, Greece): Many NCAA coaches visiting him in Florida Air Academy.
-Egor Koulechov ('94, Israel): Growing in Sagemont HS, Florida.
-Kingsley Okoroh ('95, England): Huge step for him, landing in Findlay Prep with Della Valle.
-Aaron Falzon ('96, Malta): Born in USA with maltese roots. He is at St. Mark's School (Massachusetts).
Photo: FIBA Europe / Wojtek Figurski
