DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Dame Sarr was playing in Spain’s top professional league in the spring when he plotted a course once forbidden by NCAA rules.
He was going to play college basketball at Duke.
“I always felt like this was my dream school,” the Italian wing said. “And when I got the opportunity to come here, for me it was a no-brainer.”
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Now the Blue Devils freshman is part of the influx of international players — many having played professionally, notably in Europe — entering the sport this year. That wave arrives in the first months of the revenue-sharing era, with schools able to directly pay athletes after a judge approved the $2.8 billion House antitrust settlement in July.
That meant the door was ajar for international prospects to come to the U.S. and play more — and make much more money — than developing through, say, the junior ranks of a European club.
“Players get offers 10 times higher than in Europe,” international sports agent Misko Raznatovic said in a recent email to The Associated Press, “so it is a very easy decision … for the players and their families.”
And for college coaches, that’s triggered a gold rush for basketball talent.
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“Literally we’re going to be playing against professional players this year,” said Duke’s Jon Scheyer, who added Sarr after losing all five starters from a Final Four team. “So that’s a different thing.
“Again, when you see the rules of eligibility, the way it used to be, that’s out the window. So you might as well look for anybody in Europe and try to get them to come over.”
Wide reach
In a look at 247Sports’ national recruiting classes, 13 schools with top-20 classes brought in at least one prospect from outside the U.S., a list that includes the sixth-ranked Blue Devils, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 13 Arizona, No. 18 Tennessee, No. 19 Kansas and No. 25 North Carolina. That’s more than the previous two years combined (seven in 2024, four in 2023).
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“The best players in the NBA are European players now,” said Illinois coach Brad Underwood, whose 17th-ranked Fighting Illini brought in 6-foot-9 forward David Mirkovic from Montenegro and 6-2 guard Mihailo Petrovic from Serbia. “We’re following a trend.”
Sarr, a 6-8 wing, started for Duke and had eight points in Tuesday’s win against Texas. At Arizona, 6-7 forward Ivan Kharchenkov — who first joined Bayern Munich’s senior team in 2022 at age 16 — had 12 points and 10 rebounds as a starter in Monday’s takedown of third-ranked and reigning national champion Florida.
The reach goes beyond schools atop the recruiting leaderboard.
The No. 2 prospect in 247Sports’ international list is Virginia Tech’s Neoklis Advalas, a 6-foot-9 Greek guard who had eight points and nine assists in his debut against Charleston Southern. No. 11 Louisville (6-11 forward Sananda Fru from Germany) and No. 20 Auburn (6-8 forward Filip Jovic from Serbia) also started international prospects making college debuts on opening night.
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New Virginia coach Ryan Odom started two players from top European pro leagues in 6-9 Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder (played in Spain) and 7-footer Johan Grünloh (Germany), getting a combined 33 points and 17 rebounds in Monday’s win against Rider.
“The guys that we have, they’ve played. They’re not typical freshmen,” said St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt, who added players from Russia, Italy and Ireland this offseason.
“Over there they’ve played against men for a number of years. So we’re getting guys that are schooled. … Not that the American isn’t well-coached. But just fundamentally, they’re so advanced, (more) than the typical 17-year-old high school kid.”
Mutual benefit
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Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley opened his 11th season with two new international starters in 7-1 center Massamba Diop (Senegal) and 6-11 forward Andrija Grbovic (Montenegro) against Southern Utah. He saw some of that as a response to economics of players moving through the transfer portal.
“It was very expensive for American players,” Hurley said. “And international players are very happy making a significant bump from when they were in Europe. … We felt like getting those guys that have played a couple of years professionally could make an impact.”
Raznatovic, whose clients include three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, sees a benefit, too, from the European side.
He pointed to a “lack of the possibilities” for younger players to develop there behind older talent on senior teams in top leagues. Instead, they can get valuable minutes in U.S. college basketball — with the money only making it more enticing.
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Scheyer said European leagues will make it tougher for U.S. college teams to poach talent, noting “they see what’s happening.” But Raznatovic said he has “encouraged” young players to take advantage of the college route.
“European basketball needs to survive two to three years, and after that those guys will return in the age of 23, 24, absolutely ready to play,” Raznatovic said in his email to the AP. “Majority of them will not go to NBA and will return to European leagues.
“So, European teams will get them back very shaped, (which) would not happen if they stay in Europe, where they would most likely (have) wasted talent and at the age of 23, 24 would be players for minor leagues.”
Making it work
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Still, it all requires navigating U.S. immigration laws, contracts with international clubs, the NCAA eligibility process and school admissions.
And not everything goes seamlessly in this newly widened avenue.
Consider 22-year-old Tar Heels wing Luka Bogavac, who played 55 games in the past two seasons in Montenegro and the Adriatic Basketball Association. He was admitted to school and cleared by the NCAA to compete as a junior, yet his status remained uncertain because of a school-level eligibility issue resolved only hours before Monday’s opener against Central Arkansas.
Arizona ran into delays in getting a student visa for Senegalese forward Sidi Gueye, who had played for Real Madrid in Spain’s top pro league and had a delayed arrival in Tucson.
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Or there was new N.C. State coach Will Wade describing a round-the-clock process to have 6-10 forward Musa Sagnia — a native of Gambia who had also played in Spain’s top league — enrolled in time for the fall semester.
“We got him here by about 12 hours,” said Wade, praising everyone from top athletics administrators to academics officials and the school’s Office of International Services. “Everybody did everything they could to make it work.”
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AP Basketball Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri; AP Sports Writers Will Graves in Pittsburgh and Ken Maguire in London; and AP freelancer Rich Rovito in Rosemont, Illinois, contributed to this report.
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