International Recruiting a Growing Trend in WBB

[Charliebball]

Per Raul: More college programs are seeking talent outside of the USA

Foreign recruiting makes a world of difference to UMaine women's basketball - Portland Press Herald

 

[augustaTC]

More good players means better teams, better competition & pushing the general level of play higher. Way to go Maine, USF all the others.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Should taxpayer funds be used to offer full tuition and fees to non-American student-athletes at public colleges and universities?

It's nice that good foreign athletes are coming to compete. But for non-athletes, most of the time foreign students are required to pay their own way. With American students struggling more with each passing year with student debt, should American taxpayers be subsidizing foreigners to come to public universities?

 

[ochoopsfan]

Should taxpayer funds be used to offer full tuition and fees to non-American student-athletes at public colleges and universities?

It's nice that good foreign athletes are coming to compete. But for non-athletes, most of the time foreign students are required to pay their own way. With American students struggling more with each passing year with student debt, should American taxpayers be subsidizing foreigners to come to public universities?

I am not sure of the answer, so someone who knows please respond.
Who supports, financially, UConn now, USA taxpayers or Connecticut taxpayers?
If it is Ct. taxpayers what is the difference between Lou coming to UConn and a girl from overseas?

 

[j66kicker]

Should taxpayer funds be used to offer full tuition and fees to non-American student-athletes at public colleges and universities?

It's nice that good foreign athletes are coming to compete. But for non-athletes, most of the time foreign students are required to pay their own way. With American students struggling more with each passing year with student debt, should American taxpayers be subsidizing foreigners to come to public universities?

At some schools it's the in-state football fans and national football TV viewing audience/sponsors who pay for WBB scholarships. At CT the funding is from CT taxpayers (not all American taxpayers) and non-scholarship UConn students' tuition & fees.

 

[Dillon77]

Switching over from Maine to upstate New York and the ACC, Syracuse has a very highly rated recruiting class for 2017 and three of
the recruits are internationals: two French and one Latvian, to go along with an Illini and a Bay Stater.


Syracuse women's basketball on heels of UConn with No. 2 recruiting class

 

[Dillon77]

Switching over from Maine to upstate New York and the ACC, Syracuse has a very highly rated recruiting class for 2017 and three of
the recruits are internationals: two French and one Latvian, to go along with an Illini and a Bay Stater.


Syracuse women's basketball on heels of UConn with No. 2 recruiting class

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Switching over from Maine to upstate New York and the ACC, Syracuse has a very highly rated recruiting class for 2017 and three of
the recruits are internationals: two French and one Latvian, to go along with an Illini and a Bay Stater.


Syracuse women's basketball on heels of UConn with No. 2 recruiting class

Syracuse is a private university, not a state university.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

As alluded to above, USF is a prime example. 9 foreign players.

I have no problem having Kia Nurse on full scholarship. We recruited her, not vice verse. I also could see a governing body limiting the % of a team which could have foreign citizenship and that could be a reasonable thing to do.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I am not sure of the answer, so someone who knows please respond.
Who supports, financially, UConn now, USA taxpayers or Connecticut taxpayers?
If it is Ct. taxpayers what is the difference between Lou coming to UConn and a girl from overseas?

State universities are funded mostly with tuition, and also from state tax receipts. As the state governments' budgets have become harder pressed, state funding as a percentage of total university funding has declined. Some public universities, such as Michigan and U of Virginia, now get less than 10% of funding from the state government. But most universities receive a much higher percentage from their respective state governments. Tuition is set relatively low for state residents, while residents of other states are required to pay more. Further, state and out-of-state residents have access to federal loans and grants. But foreign students usually have to pay higher tuition, and are not eligible to receive federal funding, or state scholarships.

But that is not the case with foreign student-athletes.

Further, I believe that UConn students, through their student activity fees, pay one of the highest subsidies for the athletic department of any university in the country. The figure of $24 million sticks in my mind.

 

[Wbbfan1]

If a School has difficulty recruiting Top 25 talent and/or are looking to jump start their program, then international may be the way to go. European players as a general rule are more fundamentally sound and advanced in their skills level. I think where some programs go wrong and I would include USF is that they continue to rely/recruit foreign players instead of also going after the Elite US player. For a program to get to the next level, they have to recruit Top 25 US born players.

Most of the European Players that would be considered equal to the Top 10 US players are playing in the European Club System and getting paid making them ineligible for scholarships. That is beginning to change as Clubs are not signing as many young players to pro contracts.

 

[USFMB]

As alluded to above, USF is a prime example. 9 foreign players.

USF has two such players in the 2017 class.

2017 International Players | Prospects Nation

 

[USFMB]

If a School has difficulty recruiting Top 25 talent and/or are looking to jump start their program, then international may be the way to go. European players as a general rule are more fundamentally sound and advanced in their skills level. I think where some programs go wrong and I would include USF is that they continue to rely/recruit foreign players instead of also going after the Elite US player. For a program to get to the next level, they have to recruit Top 25 US born players.

Most of the European Players that would be considered equal to the Top 10 US players are playing in the European Club System and getting paid making them ineligible for scholarships. That is beginning to change as Clubs are not signing as many young players to pro contracts.

You assume USF doesn't try to recruit elite US player. They do. The problem is that they haven't been able to land many of them, up until now.

There have been quite a few top 100 players offered by USF over the years, with very limited success.

Hopefully, that will change somewhat, if USF becomes a perennial top 25 team.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Pujol and Weber are Srs. Absent underclass departures that will give them 11 out of 15 being foreign players. Jose carries a big squad.

 

[USFMB]

Pujol and Weber are Srs. Absent underclass departures that will give them 11 out of 15 being foreign players. Jose carries a big squad.

The problem this year has been that almost half the team has been out with injuries. We play with mainly six players and a couple of them are also playing through injuries.

If we can just stay somewhat healthy, I expect we will be a much better team next year.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

The problem this year has been that almost half the team has been out with injuries. We play with mainly six players and a couple of them are also playing through injuries.

If we can just stay somewhat healthy, I expect we will be a much better team next year.

The point is that they could have recruited Florida players, or American players. Sure that some kids would want those scholarships.

I think that big-time athletics is problematic overall. Too few kids really get an education out of their athletic scholarship. UConn and Coach Geno make sure they do. I certainly appreciate Kia Nurse. But wonder what's fair?

 

[UConn79]

Pujol and Weber are Srs. Absent underclass departures that will give them 11 out of 15 being foreign players. Jose carries a big squad.

11 foreign players does seem a bit excessive. There may need to be limits, like in some foreign professional leagues. I would suggest maximum 1 per recruiting class, a maximum of 4 seems more than fair.

 

[USFMB]

11 foreign players does seem a bit excessive. There may need to be limits, like in some foreign professional leagues. I would suggest maximum 1 per recruiting class, a maximum of 4 seems more than fair.

Well, it's not just WBB.

UCONN, for example, has 9 international players on the Men's soccer team.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Per Raul: More college programs are seeking talent outside of the USA

Foreign recruiting makes a world of difference to UMaine women's basketball - Portland Press Herald

Charlie: Showing my ignorance; I know, since Sveta, some really talented kids come out of Europe--my question is more local ; what is there about the formative training in BB that makes them more desirable than home grown talent--are they more teachable--?? Seems with all the AAU and American girls playing at age 6 or younger, and into college age --we'd produce the best. Or is this simply a selective process--picking the diamonds from a pile of rocks???

 

[Charliebball]

Charlie: Showing my ignorance; I know, since Sveta, some really talented kids come out of Europe--my question is more local ; what is there about the formative training in BB that makes them more desirable than home grown talent--are they more teachable--?? Seems with all the AAU and American girls playing at age 6 or younger, and into college age --we'd produce the best. Or is this simply a selective process--picking the diamonds from a pile of rocks???

Here's what Kobe Bryant said when comparing young European players to Americans:

“Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It’s stupid. It doesn’t teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don’t know how to post. They don’t know the fundamentals of the game. It’s stupid.” -Kobe Bryant.

Coming from one of the grea

 

[UcMiami]

On the question of US tax payers subsidizing foreign students (whether state taxes or federal) - it is probably more effective than foreign aid in terms of promoting US values and interests, it helps present a greater diversity for US students at the schools, it broadens and deepens discussion and intellectual rigor in the classrooms, and it adds to the richness of American experience. Universities already actively recruit foreign students in their general populations and while they mostly pay full tuition, that is still a subsidized situation as almost all universities take tax money to some degree. Many of our essential businesses have relied for a long time on a flow of college educated foreign employees to fill their needs - as anyone who has spent time in hospital may have noticed (nurses and doctors for example.)

So yes, I would say it is money well spent, and represents a 'rounding error' in terms of the total tax revenue at either state or federal level.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I got curious about developmental basketball in Europe and happened on this site for women's basketball in France. From the age of 11 students can select it as if it is a subject, like history or....Youth basketball for women in France

 

[Fairfield Fan]

On the question of US tax payers subsidizing foreign students (whether state taxes or federal) - it is probably more effective than foreign aid in terms of promoting US values and interests, it helps present a greater diversity for US students at the schools, it broadens and deepens discussion and intellectual rigor in the classrooms, and it adds to the richness of American experience. Universities already actively recruit foreign students in their general populations and while they mostly pay full tuition, that is still a subsidized situation as almost all universities take tax money to some degree. Many of our essential businesses have relied for a long time on a flow of college educated foreign employees to fill their needs - as anyone who has spent time in hospital may have noticed (nurses and doctors for example.)

So yes, I would say it is money well spent, and represents a 'rounding error' in terms of the total tax revenue at either state or federal level.

The key is that those universities are recruiting foreign students because they pay full freight. It is not, at least at the undergraduate level, meant as "foreign aid." It's all about cash. At the graduate school level, more fellowships and other financial support is available to foreign students. But here we're talking about offering free college tuition and fees to foreign students who are good at a particular sport.

I think the numbers overall are rather low. But once again, it shows that universities are being used by athletic departments, while regular students are paying the big price.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

This kicked off with U of Maine. Here is a good read about the adjustments their players from abroad experience. ttp://www.pressherald.com/2017/03/05/off-court-adjustments-in-such-a-different-world/

“When I made the decision to come (to Maine), people told me it was super, super cold. I told them I’m going there to play basketball, not to get a tan."

 

[UcMiami]

The key is that those universities are recruiting foreign students because they pay full freight. It is not, at least at the undergraduate level, meant as "foreign aid." It's all about cash. At the graduate school level, more fellowships and other financial support is available to foreign students. But here we're talking about offering free college tuition and fees to foreign students who are good at a particular sport.

I think the numbers overall are rather low. But once again, it shows that universities are being used by athletic departments, while regular students are paying the big price.

I brought up 'foreign aid' which the US spends quite a lot of money on (though proportionally a lot less than most developed countries) as another form of US taxpayer money being spent on 'foreigners'. The reason we spend that money (and support all sorts of foreign outposts and staffs) is because we see a value to creating goodwill in foreign countries. The goodwill created by US funded disaster relief worldwide is another form of this promotion of goodwill.) Having foreign students spend four years at US schools and then return home is another way of creating that goodwill and understanding and one which I suspect is more cost effective and less corrupted by big money interests.
I do not see the foreign recruited players as the athletic department abusing their parent school - if by recruiting foreign players they are creating a better product on the court/field, then they are likely creating better goodwill for the school as well as generating more revenue.