“ Like a snowball rolling down a snow covered hill—it’s growing…”
!965- TEMPTATIONS
www.on3.com. https://www.on3.com/teams/south-carolina-gamecocks/news/south-carolina-womens-basketball-international-players-like-alicia-tournebize-are-becoming-a-bigger-part-of-the-college-game
I posed this question to Chat/GPT. They cited difficulty, yet offered some “… very strong estimates.”
How many international college basketball players are on the current rosters of the final 16 men’s teams in the 2026 NCAA Division 1 tournament?
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Some personal comments from an old tennis coach/”sports fan”
Cruel ? Our children ?
Recruiting gossip is no longer about “blue chip” or ” 5 Star “, 17/18 year American high schoolers. Recruiters have a bag of money to offer to “portals”. They are often 23 years old. Some have transferred 3-4 times. We are letting graduate students play. Some are “eligible” six or seven years after admission.
American Tennis families have suffered from this for years. Poor to rich.
Basketball has been a bedrock for mostly poor kids. Will international older players, often with backgrounds of professional play, join tennis in taking away our children’s opportunites ?
This has to be dealt with soon. And it affects many other sports than tennis and basketball.
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Comment
Unlike tennis, I have long thought college basketball needs a wake-up call from arrogant thinking that only Americans can play. But ,like my thoughts on tennis, a maximum number on the roster (say 12) and only half are foreign, is my first thought solution.
Not sure Trump is the man to solve college sport’s quandaries. His executive orders (I’ll bet he did not get one out in the week after the roundtable) are half baked and usually create more problems than they fix. And attendees who have a vested interest (a fat paycheck) in part of the game have trouble seeing the big picture.
James Haslam
This link is to a ChatGPT summary of 2025-2026 NCAA rules on The Portal and “Likeness” (NIL)
The Full Monty–The Ides of March, 2026 )
PROLOGUE
DEAR MR./MS. “SPAM”,
You are in business. I am not. Everything I have written is free to all.
PLEASE QUIT CALLING ME.
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Two Links: 1. The Barton Project ( Earlier selected articles )
https://barton.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=79836717
2. Subsequent Selected Articles:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K3qpwHvh4PtTWvhcDcCtVE2CuBBaJ8_JIWuX6fZelb0/edit?tab=t.0
https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/2025/07/16/nexus/
TIME OUT !
New York Times- Feb. 20, 2026
The Best Sports for Longevity
Walking may be America’s go-to activity, but several studies have highlighted the benefits of tennis for longevity.
One study from Denmark found that tennis players lived almost 10 years longer than their sedentary peers — and longer than soccer players, swimmers and the other recreational athletes included in the analysis. Other research from Britain and the United States followed people for about a decade and found that playing racket sports was linked to a lower risk of death during the follow-up period than any other sport or form of exercise studied.
“Kegel exercises can strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles support the bladder …
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Just read about KEGELS. It is suggested to “…not use them too soon” (as you may desparately need help later).
Reminded me of basketball coaching. Save those timeouts–you may REALLY wish you had!
“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”
On the other hand
Immigration ?
I began college tennis and basketball in 1965. I recruited my first international tennis player ten years later. Over the next thirty years there were dozens more. The reasons? First- they could play, win, and help me keep my job. Early on tennis coaches, myself included, also realized these guys were nice , intelligent , good people.
Over the years about a dozen stayed in the USA. Reflecting recently on their lives in America, I wasn’t surprised that none of them were less than stellar citizens. Doctors, Business leaders, Computer experts, Tennis professionals, coaches. Their first American great grandchildren showed up this year.
This happened almost everywhere. And it dawned on me it is a story worth telling. Perhaps the most logical access to these stories would be the INTERCOLLEGIATE TENNIS ASSOCIATION (ITA).
These stories would support College tennis. Solicited, collected,edited and published, there would a large number of public relations possibilities.
This is now happening in many different sports. The monied one is basketball. And there are down sides too (https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/2024/10/30/whoa-nelly/).
Earlier I have described how fast international tennis players thoroughly dominated American college tennis rosters .
” My involement in this tsunami was as a small college Men’s tennis coach. It was tricky in 1970 and it is in 2024.
The NAIA was the first to eliminate quotas. The coaches repealed the One International eligible for NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP play rule.
Coach Jim Verdick of Redlands University warned “…soon some Texas school, with all Mexican pros, will win every year.” He was wrong. The next year Mercyhurst College (Pennsylvania ) won featuring six of six players from Finland won. The paste was out of the tube. ” (See NEXT PLEASE -www.tomparham.wordpress.com )
Subsequently I tried to make the American basketball world aware of this scenario being repeated in our other sports that had international players. Men and women. That began 55 years ago.
John Calipari recently commented on portal issues, and then ( At minute 8:38 ) he confirms the fruition of my admonitions:
“RULES BE RULES!”
Two nights ago I watched Elon men’s play Campbel University. Campbell’s 14 player roster featured six “graduate students” and six international players.
My guess is that the average age of IMPACT players is now 23-25 years of age. Tennis once put in an
“age rule”. Calipari vehemently reveals the profound damage to 17-18 year old American high school kids who are now being ignored .
The Little Green Book of Tennis 