Last season’s All-ACC men’s basketball teams were littered with imports, athletes who arrived on campus directly from their homelands.
Stanford senior Maxime Raynaud (France) was first-team and the lone Division I player to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Junior Tyrese Proctor (Australia) and freshman Khaman Maluach (South Sudan) helped Duke reach the national championship game and were third-team and honorable mention all-conference, respectively.
Each was selected in June’s NBA draft.
This offseason, power conferences such as the ACC signed scores of additional international players — with a twist.
“The difference was this year the professional players that can come over,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “… Going forward, it’s the new wave, man. Everybody’s going to be looking at it, and seeing how it all translates will be interesting.”
Indeed, the NCAA, scarred by repeated court kneecappings, has shelved any pretense of enforcing its once-treasured pillar of amateurism. Schools are permitted to share up to $20.5 million in revenue with their athletes per year, while businesses supplement that windfall with name, image and likeness (NIL) endorsement deals.
Scheyer in May signed Dame Sarr, a wing from Italy who played professionally in Spain. He is among 24 ACC newcomers, most of them pros, who enrolled directly from overseas, where often the compensation and working conditions don’t match the six-and seven-figure salaries and charter jet travel common in major college hoops.
The two dozen imports hail from 16 nations and the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.
“The access to first-team basketball in certain countries is really hard,” Virginia assistant coach Matt Henry said. “Spain, Germany. If you’re a really good player, but not (an NBA) lottery pick, getting first-team minutes at age 18 or 19 is hard.
“College basketball has become an under-23 professional league, and it happens to be the second-best paying league in the world. You’re going to get people coming over from everywhere to get a piece of that professional money.”
The season just started Monday, but early results and conversations with ACC coaches suggest that many new internationals will be integral to their team’s success.
Thijs De Ridder (Belgium) and Johann Grunloh (Germany) combined for 33 points and 17 rebounds in Virginia’s dusting of Rider. Neoklis Avdalas (Greece) contributed nine assists, eight points and two blocked shots as Virginia Tech routed Charleston Southern.
Sarr logged 29 minutes and produced eight points, five boards and effective defense in Duke’s victory over Texas. Luka Bogavac (Montenegro) was UNC’s sixth man against Central Arkansas and finished with 10 points, five assists, three boards and two steals, numbers that foreshadow an eventual starting role.
“Really good coaching (in Europe),” Hokies coach Mike Young said. “The level at which they’ve competed translates quite well to the Atlantic Coast Conference.”
David Teel: Signing NBA prospect Neoklis Avdalas ‘like getting 2 players’ for Hokies
Virginia Tech’s Antonio Dorn (Germany), Louisville’s Sananda Fru (Germany) and Vangelis Zougris (Greece and former teammate of Avdalas), N.C. State’s Musa Sagnia (Gambia), Pitt’s Roman Siulepa (Australia), Boston College’s Marko Radunovic (Montenegro) and Florida State’s Thomas Bassong (France) also project as key additions.
“Look at the new rules,” said N.C. State coach Will Wade, famously dismissed from LSU three years ago for making a “strong-ass (financial) offer” to a prospect. “Used to be you couldn’t give a guy a donut. Now you can go pay their (overseas contract) buyout…
“Look, it’s just opened up a new market. One, a lot of those kids didn’t necessarily want to come over here because you couldn’t make as much money. Two, you had the amateurism issue. Now, everybody’s eligible.
“They’re really good students. You can get them in school. They’re very appreciative of the opportunity to be here. I think they’re really good adds for most teams, and I don’t see the trend stopping as long as the rules stay the way they are.”
It’s not just the money and minutes. Major college basketball offers more exposure than overseas professional leagues and a more traditional path to the NBA.
Sure, Luka Dončić, Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo went directly from Europe to the NBA, where they are perennial all-stars and future Hall of Famers. And yes, Victor Wembanyama is on the fast track to join them.
But that foursome declared for the NBA draft before international pros could transition to the college game.
“I would say college basketball was always an option for me,” Avdalas said. “I was always watching college basketball. (After) last season, I entered the NBA draft. It was a big thing for me. I thought I was close. But I felt Virginia Tech was the best fit for me right now to go there next year.”
Neoklis Avdalas had eight points and nine assists in his Virginia Tech debut against Charleston Southern. (VT Athletics photo)
De Ridder made a similar calculation.
“I did a couple of NBA workouts last summer and the summer before,” he said. “They always said if you go to college, we can compare you to (other college prospects). And I said, OK, let’s do it. I want to show myself and prove that I’m ready for the NBA.”
But for all their overseas accomplishments and promising debuts, the imports are no different than other college rookies. Academic, athletic and social adjustments take time.
On the court, the game is faster than overseas, the players younger and quicker. This will be especially true against league and top-shelf nonconference opponents.
The rules are different, too. Touching the ball while it’s on the rim isn’t permitted in the States, and officials are less tolerant of physical play.
The 6-foot-9, 238-pound De Ridder, for example, committed four fouls in 24 minutes against Rider and said he needed to be “physical without fouling.”
“A lot of times over there it’s more skilled, more team emphasis, and we’re trying to get to that here,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “But (here) you have some outstanding individual guys and you have athleticism that maybe they’ve never been around.”
Capel has long appreciated international basketball, never like in 2016, when as a member of Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke staff he observed Krzyzewski steer a U.S. Olympic team headlined by Kevin Durant to the gold medal. The Americans’ road to the medal stand included victories over Serbian and Spanish squads led by Jokić and Pau Gasol, respectively.
“It really bothers and annoys the hell out of me when I hear people that don’t understand and just think that we’re supposed to win because what you’re saying is you have no idea what the international game is,” Capel said.
This marks the third consecutive season that Capel’s roster includes multiple foreign players, a history he shares with Virginia coach Ryan Odom.
Odom inherited guards Max Shulga (Ukraine) and Sean Bairstow (Australia) when he accepted the Utah State job in 2021, and they accompanied him to VCU two years later. During his tenures at Utah State and VCU, Odom also added players from Bahrain and England.
With player agents now embedded in international and domestic recruiting, Odom said the processes have become more similar. The biggest difference is travel logistics prevent college coaches from watching overseas prospects in-person as frequently as they do high school recruits.
Swamped with their transition from VCU to Virginia, Odom and his staff courted De Ridder and Grunloh virtually, trusting video and their international contacts for evaluations.
“Here you start recruiting high school kids as freshmen and sophomores,” said Henry, who has worked with Odom at UMBC, Utah State, VCU and Virginia. “Europeans aren’t looking to be recruited for a decision three, four years down the road. So, it’s a much faster recruitment. They’re more pragmatic. They don’t have emotional ties to (college programs).”
Virginia Tech didn’t start pursuing Avdalas until April, when Chester Frazier rejoined Young’s staff as associate head coach after brief stints at Illinois and West Virginia. Frazier, who first worked at Tech from 2019-21, has a longstanding relationship with Avdalas’ agent, Alex Saratsis.
Saratsis also represents Antetokounmpo, an icon in Avdalas’ homeland. Avdalas was 14 when he met Antetokounmpo, and the two occasionally correspond as Avdalas chases his dream of joining Antetokounmpo in the NBA.
If they perform as many expect, talents such as Avdalas and De Ridder won’t be in college for long. But further surges of international pros to major conference programs border on certain.
“I believe that 100%,” Avdalas said. “College basketball has been stealing guys from Europe, and it’s a thing right now. It’s great.”
David Teel, david.teel@virginiamedia.com
