NEW YORK TIMES (March 23, 2021)

“In the last decade or so, UConn and other top programs have increasingly sought players from Europe, Canada, Australia and Africa, as a growing parity in college basketball has made recruiting increasingly competitive. There were four different women’s champions in the four seasons before the coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 N.C.A.A. tournament.

All four No. 1 seeds in the 2021 women’s tournament — Stanford, UConn, North Carolina State and South Carolina — listed at least one international player on their rosters. South Florida, another tournament team, listed 11, along with a player from Puerto Rico.

UConn (25-1) is seeking its 12th national title with a roster that includes two Eastern Europeans — Muhl, who injured her ankle in the Huskies’ first-round win on Sunday night, and Anna Makurat, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard from Poland — and Aaliyah Edwards, a 6-3 freshman forward from Canada. They are three of only 12 players from outside the United States signed by Auriemma in his 36 seasons coaching at UConn.

“If you don’t have international players, you’re almost behind the ones that do,” said Blair Hardiek, global technical director for the N.B.A. Academy Women’s Program, a development project for international athletes.”

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Onions have many layers. Lots of things do. Earlier I cited a letter addressing international men tennis players in small colleges in 1970. Kudzu-like, this layer of college athletic issues has added women.. All divisions of organizations (NCAA,NAIA, JUNIOR COLLEGES,etc.), tennis, track, soccer, race, money sports and non revenue, Nearly all of our arenas.

Again my concern is for “our kids”. Women’s basketball at the top allows 15 scholarships annually. African – American women will lose a lot more scholarship money as this trend expands. An American is eliminated for every international granted a scholarship.

CRY FOR ME–Soloman Burke