Article on This Season's ACC Challenge Opponent, Syracuse, International Pipeline

Ignatius L Hoops

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https://www.syracuse.com/orangewome...owerful_international_recruiting_pipelin.html

A few years ago there were articles on mid-majors finding international recruiting cost effective. Now major conference schools are in the game. For one, It's an effective way to find post players.

Syracuse has a coach dedicated to the search-Adeniyi Amadou.


Of the 14 scholarship players on the Syracuse women's basketball roster this season, seven were born in places other than the United States.

There's Tiana Mangakahia, the Australian point guard, and Digna Strautmane, the forward from Latvia. Both were important starters and contributors during SU's 2017-18 season. This year, the Orange adds a trio of French players, a wing from the Czech Republic and returns a Canadian guard.

The abundance of international talent is not accidental. Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman three years ago determined the most efficient way to restock his basketball program, particularly with forwards and centers, might be to shop the international market. He hired Adeniyi Amadou, a 6-foot-7 former college basketball player born in Benin and raised in Paris, to coach his forwards and concentrate solely on international recruiting.

Amadou, who played at West Point and Indiana University Pennsylvania (IUP), speaks four languages. He is working on a Ph.D in mass communications from SU's Newhouse School. And he has used his ability to reach overseas players to make Syracuse an attractive international basketball destination.

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This season, Syracuse signed Emily Engstler, a McDonald's All-American from downstate St. Francis Prep. But there are only 24 potentially game-changing McDonald's stars to spread among more than 300 women's Division I basketball teams each year. And because programs like Connecticut, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Baylor habitually scoop up a high percentage of those players, Hillsman made a momentous recruiting decision: He would look overseas.

"We sat down and just decided that this would be the great equalizer," Amadou said. "So instead of going in the states and competing for those 12-20 McDonald's All-Americans, we can go find those same caliber players overseas and make it a niche."

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While luck factors into every recruiting success, work means more. Amadou spent 60 of the 90 days last summer in Europe, either coaching Britain's U16 team or watching prospects in various FIBA championships.

SU's compliance office helps Amadou determine whether potential recruits have played for disqualifying money abroad. (International players are allowed to accept only "actual and necessary" living expenses from their club teams.) He researches the teams, the players, their families. He spends vast portions of his recruiting pitches explaining how college basketball works to players and family members who have little to no idea about the process.

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Amadou recently returned from a 20-day recruiting trip through Spain, France, Sweden and Greece. He still overpacks, he said, the need for various computers, phones and an array of clothes requiring a large book bag, a suitcase and a rolling carry-on.

Part of his travel routine involves securing an exit row seat. His father is a linguist and as Amadou flies to each European destination, he devotes time to learning various pleasantries of the native language and any local customs. He speaks French, English, Spanish and Yoruba, an African dialect.

Hillsman acknowledged the expense of international recruiting -- Amadou travels overseas for every NCAA open recruiting period -- and credits SU athletic director John Wildhack and his staff with providing funds to do the necessary work.
 




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