PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Kansas has always been one of the elite programs in the country and its coach Bill Self has maintained the excellence of previous coaches like Larry Brown and Roy Williams since taking over the job in 2003.
His credentials speak volumes.
The Eddie Sutton disciple has won one national championship in 2008, nine Big 12 regular season titles, six league tournament championships, advancing to two Final Fours, five NCAA Elite Eights and seven Sweet 16s. He has been named national coach of the year by eight different organizations, has a 507-164 record (.756) in Lawrence and has produced 14 NBA draft choices, including eight lottery picks and a record five who were selected 2008.
His consistent success will eventually lead to induction in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Self has previous built his teams around elite travel team players from the United States and has rarely wandered from his typical recruiting roots, which extend from the East Coast to as far west as Texas. But this year’s young team, which is unbeaten and has already defeated Duke in the Legends Classic in Chicago, has taken on a different persona. Self’s two most promising NBA prospects — 6-8 freshman forward Andrew Wiggins and 7-0, 250-pound freshman center Joel Embiid– have their roots in Canada and the African country of Cameroon. Both should be high lottery picks and Wiggins, who has already said he will only stay in college for a year, is a leading candidate, along with Oklahoma State sophomore guard Marcus Smart, to be the first pick overall in the 2014 NBA draft.
“We have never really recruited much outside our borders,” Self admitted as the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament got underway here at the Atlantis Resort. “But with the emergence of Canada– Toronto has produced as many players per capita as any city– and with more and more kids coming over to the states from Africa, we’ve benefited from both those scenarios.”
Kansas, which looked like it might be in a rebuilding mode with four freshman starters, suddenly has the look of a national championship contender because of Self’s two new impact players.
Wiggins, who will not turn 19 until this February, is a freakish gifted athlete with smooth offensive game fom Thornhill, Ont. just outside Toronto who has received the most hype of any incoming Jayhhawk freshman since Danny Manning. He was listed as the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2013 by every recruiting service after transferring from Vaughn Secondary School in Ontario to Huntington, W. Va. Prep in 2011 so he could refine his game in the States. Wiggins was actually supposed to graduate high school in 2014, but reclassifed into his original class of 2013.. He chose Kansas over Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida State, his father’s alma mater. Wiggins is aveaging close to 17 points and has already made an impact on the national scene, scoring 16 of his 22 points in the second half against Duke and taking the game over in the final three minutes of a 93-85 victory over the Blue Devils at the United Center.
Embiid was ranked No. 6 recruit nationally by ESPN. He grew up playing volleyball in Yaunde, Cameroon and did not start playing basketball until he attended a camp run by Sacramento King’s Luc Mbah a Moute from the same town. Embiid was 16 years old, but his athleticism made him a natural. Embiid transferred to the Rock School in Gainesville, Fla. to play his senior year in high school, leading histeam to its first state championship in school history. He chose the school that produced Wilt Chamberlain over Florida and Texas and had a breakout game recently when he produced 16 points and 13 rebounds during an 86-66 victory over Iona at Allen Field House in a game where his father Thomas was in the stands.
“I don’t know if we will commit a lot of time going overseas to recruit,” Self said. “Because now, they are coming over here. They are being placed in good schools and they are being coached. I’ll be shocked if the trend doesn’t become greater.”
Kansas expanded its horizons out of necessary to stay competitive in the national championship race with pre-season natinoal championship favorite Kentucky, which signed five of the top 10 prospects nationally and has eight players who could be first round picks
College basketball is undergoing the same type of globalization former NBA commissioner David Stern has constantly talked about since the Dream Team era in the early ’90’s. There are a record 92 international players from 39 countries on NBA rosters to start the season. Thee is more than 20 percent of the league. That number is up from 84 players last season. Only three teams do not have an international player on the roster.
France, which won the European championships this summer with guard Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, has the most NBA players with 10. Canada now has eight players, ranging from veteran guard Steve Nash to last year’s No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett, who played one year at UNLV.
The Spurs have the most foreign players with seven, including Tim Duncan, Parker, Tiago Splitter, and Manu Ginobili. Other stars with international roots include Kyrie Irving (who has dual United States and Australian citizenship), Serge Ibaka from the Congo, Al Horford from the Dominican Republic, Dirk Nowitiski from Germany, Luol Deng from Great Britian and Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol and Ricky Rubio from Spain.
This year’s draft is likely to have three internationals– Wiggins, 6-6 guard Dante Exxum from Austraila and Embiid– selected within the first six picks with 6-10 Dario Saric from Croatia– a possible lottery pick. NBA scouts should highly visible at this sold out event.
Overall, five of the eight teams in the Battle 4 Atlantis here have players with foreign roots– Egypt, Cameroon, Canada, Serbia and England.
“You may be headed in that direction,” Self said, talking about the global game. “No matter what people say negatively about our game, it’s still the best anywhere in the world and good players, good prospects want to come over here to get competition, play against the best.
“The kids we’ve dealt with have been sponges and know they won’t know. And it’s been great to be around those guys.”
