bmh_twosix wrote:
Feel like it would be awesome for us to start playing in the high level international recruit game. Not that we always want to compare to it, but maybe taking another page from the Gonzaga playbook? They’ve had some phenomenal overseas players throughout the years. Think they still hit at a high clip from that pool, but are now getting the 5 star guys on top of it.
This is what I've been saying for years, and thank you for mentioning it again in this context, bmh. American higher education has taken a bit of a hit in its international reputation the past several years, but in Eastern and Central Europe Jesuit schools are thought of as equivalent to Ivy League institutions. The fact that we have The Largest Enrollment Jesuit University in the United States, that we're in a city and a neighborhood with very strong ethnic communities from Central and Eastern Europe, and that we have a kick-ass basketball program should make it a no-brainer.
Besides Gonzaga, Valpo has also had a lot of 3 and 4 star International hoops recruits. But we're in a better city, we're a Top 100 national university according to US News (neither Gonzaga nor Valpo are even considered national universities in their ranking system), we're a great fit for skilled international freshmen and sophomores looking to refine their game, and we're dabbling in the area of being a consistent Top 50 men's basketball program.