Sweet 16 brimming with international talent, a growing trend in college basketball

NEWARK, N.J. — Seated and slouched in a folding chair that is far too small for him, with an angle unsuitable for his branch-like legs that seem far too long for anyone, Khaman Maluach recounted the last year of his frantic, fantastic life.

Last March, when he was 17 years old, Maluach played in the Basketball Africa League for the City Oilers, a team based in Uganda, the country to which he and his family fled as refugees. Last summer, shortly before traveling to Duke for his freshman season, Maluach represented his native South Sudan at the Olympics in Paris. And now, on Wednesday afternoon, he unfurled his 7-foot-2, 250-pound frame in a locker room that belongs to the local NHL team as the Blue Devils prepared for a Sweet 16 matchup with Arizona, four wins from a national title.

“It’s been a great journey,” Maluach said. “It’s been a lot of learning and a lot of adjustments to do. It’s been great because I remember last summer I was just in the Olympics, and then I came straight to school, and then now I’m in March Madness. It’s really fun and just shows [that] time flies by quick, too.”

To varying degrees, narrative arcs like this one are speckled throughout an East Regional whose representatives — No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Alabama, No. 4 Arizona and No. 6 BYU — are bursting with international prospects in reflection of a burgeoning trend across the sport. All four teams have starting centers who were born outside the United States in Maluach, Alabama’s Clifford Omoruyi (Nigeria), Arizona’s Motiejus Krivas (Lithuania) and BYU’s Keba Keita (Mali), though Krivas suffered a season-ending injury over the winter. They are surrounded here at the Prudential Center by eight more combined starters and key contributors from overseas, with several more deep reserves and developmental players also arriving from foreign locales. The list of countries represented when games tip off Thursday night will include Australia, Russia, Serbia, Estonia and Spain in addition to the four nations already named.

The global feel at this year’s East Regional is attached to a quartet of teams that all rank among the top 13 nationally in offensive efficiency, a connection described by several international players in attendance as anything but coincidental. Their collective presence is certainly not the only reason why the Blue Devils rank first, the Crimson Tide rank fourth, the Cougars rank ninth and the Wildcats rank 13th — all four programs have excellent coaches with highly regarded systems, all four programs have plenty of American-born players who are still responsible for a sizable chunk of the scoring — but the influx of talent from parts of the world where fundamentals and basketball philosophy are ingrained from an early age cannot be ignored. It’s the same reason why an increasing number of college coaches are looking abroad when hunting for ways to enhance their respective playbooks.

“I know back home,” said Arizona guard Anthony Dell’Orso, who grew up in Australia, during an interview with FOX Sports, “we’re heavy on passing the ball, screens, it’s kind of more strategic basketball. Then you get to the U.S. and it’s kind of more physical, one-on-one, kind of isolation ball. So there is an adjustment. Obviously, me being here — my third year now — I’ve kind of adjusted to both parts of the game. And Americans playing with Europeans or Aussies, they kind of get the other side of it, they get a new wave of mentality. Because it’s not so much a skill thing, it’s more [of] a mindset thing. But it’s great to have both.”

With Krivas out for the season, Dell’Orso (7.4 points per game) is likely to be Arizona’s only foreign starter when the Wildcats battle top-seeded Duke on Thursday night, buttressed by 7-foot sophomore Henri Veesaar (9.3 points per game) from Estonia off the bench. They are the latest in an assembly line of foreign players to find success under fourth-year head coach Tommy Lloyd, a long-time believer in international talent stemming from his lengthy stint as Mark Few’s top assistant coach at Gonzaga from 2001-21, a stretch in which the Bulldogs found players all over the world.

Lloyd’s first recruiting class at Arizona included Pelle Larsson, a transfer from Utah by way of Sweden, and Oumar Ballo, a transfer from Gonzaga by way of Mali, both of whom would eventually earn All-Pac 12 honors. Next came Veesaar the following year and Krivas, Paulius Murauskas (Lithuania) and Conrad Martinez (Spain) the season after that. Dell’Orso became an instant contributor when he arrived in the transfer portal ahead of the 2024-25 campaign and now leads the team’s guards in offensive rating, according to KenPom. Never have the Wildcats finished worse than 15th nationally in offensive efficiency since Lloyd took over.

“I think strength always lies in diversity,” Lloyd said, “and so I want to create a locker room that has a lot of diversity. I think it’s a ton of fun. I think those kids overseas are learning a good style of basketball. If you look at the NBA right now — I don’t know the [exact] percentage of players that are international — but it’s really high. To me, what I do is normal. I mean, I’m not a specialist. I’m building normal basketball rosters for high-level teams, and that’s how I’ve always looked at it.”

Though Lloyd has the strongest lineage of international prospects among the four coaches in Newark this week, it’s first-year head coach Kevin Young from BYU who employs the largest collection of foreign-born players in what is already the program’s winningest season since 2011. Young spent the last eight years as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns, with another decade of experience in the NBA G League — then known as the NBA D-League — from 2007-16, including three head-coaching opportunities. He made an immediate impact on the recruiting trail for the Cougars by landing five-star point guard Egor Demin from Russia, experienced power forward Mihailo Boskovic from Serbia and productive transfers in Keita and former Rutgers forward Mawot Mag (Australia) via the portal.

Of the 10 BYU players who logged minutes in a thrilling 91-89 victory over third-seeded Wisconsin in the second round, which propelled the Cougars to their first Sweet 16 appearance in 14 years, five were born in other countries. Demin, who averages 10.5 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game as a true freshman, is expected to be a lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft and will likely crack the top 10 selections overall. He flirted with a triple-double against the Badgers — 11 points, eight rebounds, eight assists — while only turning the ball over once last week. The Cougars rank No. 1 in the country for offensive efficiency from Feb. 12 through the present, according to Torvik Ratings, with a most commonly used lineup that features three international players in Demin, Mag and Keita.

“There’s a lot of international flavor at BYU,” Young said. “A lot of students go on missions and come back from a million different countries. Egor has joked about how many people speak Russian in Provo. I thought it’s a unique place, and so recruiting internationally, I could probably call someone anywhere in the world and there’s going to be a BYU connection. So that was intriguing.

“As it relates to coaching other European players, we play a pretty heavy pick-and-roll style of [offense]. I think that’s where Egor has been really good. Clearly, he has been developed over there with an understanding of pick-and-roll reads. So that was of interest and will continue to be of interest.”

A heightened understanding of pick-and-roll coverages, an innate willingness to pass the ball and high-level perimeter shooting were among the traits most commonly mentioned by international players on Thursday when asked which parts of their game have best translated to college. An ability to make shots from beyond the arc is perhaps the most valuable skill recruits from outside the United States can contribute, evidenced by the breakout scoring efforts from Duke guard Tyrese Proctor in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Proctor, who is from Australia, shot 6-for-8 from 3-point range in the opening round against Mount St. Mary’s and 7-for-8 from downtown in a second-round win over Baylor. Of the 28 players at this year’s East Regional to make at least 15 3-pointers this season, more than 21% of them were born outside the United States.

Neither the players nor the coaches expect the flow of international prospects to slow anytime soon, especially as schools continue finding ways for players to capitalize on passive NIL opportunities — in lieu of work visas — and implement the long-awaited revenue-sharing measures once the House v. NCAA settlement is eventually passed. If anything, the pipelines to college basketball from places like Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania are only getting stronger.

“I think the money aspect and the NIL has definitely attracted more people to want to come to college,” Dell’Orso told FOX Sports. “In my opinion, player development in college is the best that there ever is — other than the NBA, of course. In college, guys are just working out all the time, you have coaches on deck, and it’s a real fixed approach to getting guys better. And then if it doesn’t happen in one year, you’ve got three more years to keep developing. That’s the best thing about college. So I think the money aspect is definitely attracting more guys.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.

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