TAMPA, Fla.-While the story in Tampa is the third NCAA National Championship of Kim Mulkey and her Baylor Bears, there was a new twist to the annual gathering of coaches that always surrounds the Final Four. While technically a “Dead Period” under NCAA legislation, a large contingent of recruiters spent part of their Saturday watching a collection of international players brought in the NBA / NCAA / USA Basketball and WBCA as part of the NBA Academies and the NCAA’s Next Generation initiative.
Given the NCAA green light despite being a non-scholastic event, Division I coaches were permitted to observe the action held in The Tourney Town exhibit at the Tampa Convention Center. Athletes representing 15 countries were divided up into four squads and saw action in two separate scrimmages that were also free to the public for viewing. Among the 34 international prospects were 3 members of the 2019 class, 17 graduating next year in 2020, 6 more on track for 2021 and 8 members of the class of 2022. Australia had 6 players in town while Canada was represented by 5 and both China and India who had 4 apiece. The remaining 11 countries had just one or two athletes on the floor Saturday. The athletes, along with some select USA players, had earlier participated in two days of Next Generation programming before the culmination in Saturday’s competitive exhibition.
While the strange exemption allowing coaches to view the non-scholastic action during the dead period goes against the grain in multiple ways, the court was surrounded by coaching staffs who went back to work of during their “break” to check out the prospects and action. Below are just a few images from Saturday of athletes who punched their tickets to the 2019 Final Four in Tampa with their respective passports.
