How Does One Go About Recruiting In Lithuania?

oldguystudent · December 4, 2008

We noticed last night that Sam Houston had a player from Lithuania. I recall quite a few Europeans on Big West teams back in my day as well. How exactly does a school like Sam Houston or Long Beach State go about recruiting in Lithuania? Can you see the conversation?

Johnny: Yeah, um Rick, I need a ticket to Lithuania.

Rick: What? Why?

Johnny: There's a big tall kid over there I'd like to take a look at.

So Johnny gets on a plane, spends God knows how much money flying over there, eats some gnocchi soup with the kid, and doesn't sign him. Ouch!

So seriously, do the European kids come over here looking for colleges? Is there some universal NCAA scout that goes to Europe and reports back to all schools? How does it work?

Censored by Laurie · December 4, 2008

We noticed last night that Sam Houston had a player from Lithuania. I recall quite a few Europeans on Big West teams back in my day as well. How exactly does a school like Sam Houston or Long Beach State go about recruiting in Lithuania? Can you see the conversation?
Johnny: Yeah, um Rick, I need a ticket to Lithuania.
Rick: What? Why?
Johnny: There's a big tall kid over there I'd like to take a look at.
So Johnny gets on a plane, spends God knows how much money flying over there, eats some gnocchi soup with the kid, and doesn't sign him. Ouch!
So seriously, do the European kids come over here looking for colleges? Is there some universal NCAA scout that goes to Europe and reports back to all schools? How does it work?

Easiest way used to be to drive 45 minutes west of Ft. Worth...Weatherford College used to load up on the Eastern Europeans. I think your best bet to find a good straight-out-of-Europe euro is to hope JJ is still in contact with guys like Calvin Watson, Jermaine Green or Jeffery Simpson who are playing over in Europe...most pro-club teams have U17 and U18 squads under them as well...and you'd hope a former player would want to call up his coach if he sees a talented kid who wants to go stateside that could help out his former team.

DeepGreen · December 4, 2008

I was not impressed with the player from Lithuania.

Censored by Laurie · December 4, 2008

I was not impressed with the player from Lithuania.

I'd love one euro wing...they normally can shoot the damn out of the ball and don't play a lick of defense. Perfect fit.

oldguystudent · December 4, 2008

I was not impressed with the player from Lithuania.

If you got an up close and personal view of the choke hold he placed on Tramiel like I did, you'd be rooting for him to get into the WWE.

SUMG · December 4, 2008

Two of the foreign players that I know that we've signed down through the years:

1) Bernt Malion, from Sweden...played for Coach Blakely. Didn't last long (a year?). I remember that it cracked me up...the league that he played in. You know, over here...you get a kid from district 10-5A or something like that. We got Bernt from The Stockholm Industrial League.

2) Graeme Antsey....played under Coach Trilli for about a year, as well. Brother of the Mavs #1 pick from years ago...Chris Antsey. Let's just say....neither of the Antsey brothers added much to either of my favorite basketball teams.

There are few others...like Lowell Myrie...who I believe was from The Bahamas. But, as far as European and way out of the way places where you can get players...I believe Malion and Antsey are maybe the only two.

Green Mean · December 4, 2008

Johnny: There's a big tall white kid over there I'd like to take a look at.

Fixed.

Carry on please.

UNTLifer · December 4, 2008

We noticed last night that Sam Houston had a player from Lithuania. I recall quite a few Europeans on Big West teams back in my day as well. How exactly does a school like Sam Houston or Long Beach State go about recruiting in Lithuania? Can you see the conversation?
Johnny: Yeah, um Rick, I need a ticket to Lithuania.
Rick: What? Why?
Johnny: There's a big tall white kid over there I'd like to take a look at.
Rick: What's wrong with Howerton?
So Johnny gets on a plane, spends God knows how much money flying over there, eats some gnocchi soup with the kid, and doesn't sign him. Ouch!
So seriously, do the European kids come over here looking for colleges? Is there some universal NCAA scout that goes to Europe and reports back to all schools? How does it work?

Fixed

Edited December 4, 2008 by UNTLifer

Keith7 · December 4, 2008

Sam Houston's Lithuanian player played his senior year of high school in Florida and started at Odessa College before being picked up by Sam Houston.. So to recruit a Lithuanian the Sam Houston coach only had to drive across Texas..

http://www.gobearkats.com/ViewArticle.dbml...p;Q_SEASON=2008

GrandGreen · December 4, 2008

Getting foreign players can be a shady business, I believe most are found using agent-type intermediaries. Also now there are actually internet sites that have profiles of international athletes looking for US scholarships. I think it is fairly common for foreigners to sign and never have seen any of their coaches or the school in person. Ask any tennis coach almost all university tennis teams are primarily made up of foreigners. NT, other than tennis and transfers from other US schools, doesn't get a lot of foreigners but some of our competitors like the MUTS rely heavily on them for non-revenue sports. One Belt woman's basketball team had three or four Australian starters last year. Florida International, true to its name, traditionally is full of international players on its teams.

Add Glenroy Feguson to NT's short list of basketball foreigners, he was from one of the islands. However I think that he and basketball players Myrie and Antsey were already in the states and transferred to NT from another college. The Swede, I think did come here directly from overseas.

Green to the Bone · December 5, 2008

Getting foreign players can be a shady business, I believe most are found using agent-type intermediaries. Also now there are actually internet sites that have profiles of international athletes looking for US scholarships. I think it is fairly common for foreigners to sign and never have seen any of their coaches or the school in person. Ask any tennis coach almost all university tennis teams are primarily made up of foreigners. NT, other than tennis and transfers from other US schools, doesn't get a lot of foreigners but some of our competitors like the MUTS rely heavily on them for non-revenue sports. One Belt woman's basketball team had three or four Australian starters last year. Florida International, true to its name, traditionally is full of international players on its teams.
Add Glenroy Feguson to NT's short list of basketball foreigners, he was from one of the islands. However I think that he and basketball players Myrie and Antsey were already in the states and transferred to NT from another college. The Swede, I think did come here directly from overseas.

GG is correct. There are broker/agents who find young kids and arrange for them to come to the U.S. during high school, and then get them into college ranks. The paper in Dayton, Ohio (I think) published a fascinating series on this a few years ago. The industry came across as fairly sleazy, especially when it came to arranging questionable "exchange student" type deals to get them into the U.S.