International unknowns: Recruiting with USU men’s basketball
In the Spring of 2018, the head basketball coach of South Dakota, Craig Smith, was in an interview with Utah State athletic director John Hartwell, making his case to become the new head coach at Utah State. Smith was given the position and was tasked to bring a proud Aggie basketball program out of mediocrity.
Smith and assistant coach Eric Peterson had some established connections internationally, Smith mentioned to Hartwell his desire to recruit more foreign players. Hartwell loved the idea and said that that was an avenue that they should pursue.
Two years and two Mountain West tournament championships later, seven of the 16 members of the 2020-21 Utah State men’s basketball team are foreign-born, and all seven were brought in by Smith and Peterson.
Senior center Kuba Karwowski from Poland; junior center Neemias Queta from Portugal; sophomore guard Sean Bairstow from Australia; redshirt freshman forward Liam McChesney from British Columbia, Canada all made the roster last season. Add to that, three new additions to the squad; freshman guard Zahar “Z” Vedischev from Russia; freshman center Szymon Zapala from Poland; and freshman guard Max Shulga from Ukraine.
When Smith and Peterson were at South Dakota, they had success — winning the Summit League championship in 2017 — but did it without a single international player on the roster.
“It was an avenue that we really dove into for about 2 years prior to coming to Utah State,” Smith said. “We just didn’t have quite as much success and we didn’t invest time in it.”
Making the step up to coaching at a Mountain West school, Smith and his staff knew that they would have to recruit better players to compete, and that those better players could be found abroad, a market that was largely untapped by most Division One schools.
“The international market works in a way where you can get really good players and sometimes there’s a lot of schools that don’t even know about those players,” Peterson said.
Queta was one of those players, who despite having offers from Texas Tech and Saint Marys, got overlooked by many other schools. And Queta’s contributions to the team in his first two seasons have been invaluable. Another example is Bairstow, who’s only other division one offer was from UC Santa Barbara. Yet, he played substantial time as a true freshman, including a productive 20 minutes off the bench in the Mountain West Quarterfinal against New Mexico, which Smith praised as being a major part of the Aggies’ win. Karwowski didn’t have many, possibly no offers coming out of North Platte community college in Nebraska, but filled in nicely at starting center in place of an injured Queta before dealing with his own health issues last season.
Freshman guard Sean Bairstow dribbles the ball at USU’s Men’s Basketball game against UNLV. USU played UNLV in the Spectrum on February 5, 2020, winning 69-54
Highly touted recruits or not, it’s not an easy task to identify kids that will be the right fit for your program.
“We love guys that are skilled and guys that can pass and catch and make decisions and know how to play the game. And we’re very selective with that,” Smith said. “A lot of international players have what we’re looking for as far as IQ, passing ability, just the way they develop different skills,” he said.
Peterson admitted that this fundamental method of basketball is “a little bit more of an international style,” because contrary to the United States youth system where much of the game relies on the athletic ability of individuals, international basketball relies on a team collectively working together.
The statistics are evidence of the Aggies’ ability to play what Smith calls the “winning style.” The team’s assist-to-field goals made ratio under Smith was 62.1% in 2019 and 61.3% in 2020, good for No. 5 and No. 9 in the country, respectively. One could argue, this makes foreign players and Utah State great fits for each other.
Zapala, Shulga, and Vedischev are no exceptions to this.
“Zymon, Max, and Z are all very skilled,” Smith said. “They understand the game, they’re tough kids and they love to compete. I think they’re going to fit our style in a tremendous way.”
In the summer of 2019, Peterson had the opportunity to travel to Europe and see these skills first hand, watching Shulga and Zapala in the U18 European championships and Vedischev in the World championships. But just a couple of years ago they wouldn’t have been permitted to do this.
“One thing the NCAA recently has done is allowed us to recruit at the national tournaments in Europe and around the world, where before those tournaments were not in our recruiting period.” Peterson said.
However, coaches aren’t able to talk to athletes at these tournaments, so the key to getting on the prospects radar is to have an established relationship with people that they trust.
“It’s hard to get an international player unless you have some sort of connection to the people helping them,” said Peterson. “We have kind of built relationships with a lot of people internationally that have been able to help us get in the door with some of those kids and their families.”
Recruiting restrictions due to COVID-19 have added greater challenges for this year’s recruiting season. Peterson was unable to travel to Eastern Europe to meet with the recruits and their families. All of the communication was done via zoom and facetime. And Shulga, Vedishev, Zapala were unable to come and visit Logan. But trusting their newly formed relationships, the three new Freshman took the leap of faith and came to Cache Valley to play the game they love. Luckily, they have four other teammates that understand what it’s like to come to a new country as a young man.
Smith was fast to mention Queta as someone who will help out the new guys, his experience in their shoes and welcoming personality make him the perfect man for the job. The 7-footer came to Cache Valley from Portugal as an 18-year old and took on a big responsibility right away, and has made a home for himself in Logan — even staying here through the quarantine.
While all seven of the international guys on the roster have the chance to make a home for themselves in Logan, they also have the unique opportunity to represent their native land. Smith recounted seeing former Aggie guard Diogo Brito and Queta celebrating with the Portuguese flag after they won the Mountain West tournament in 2019.
“I always remember him and Neemy carrying their country’s flag,” he said. “Ya know they’re playing for themselves and their family and they’re certainly playing for Utah State but also, they’re playing for their country and that’s a really neat thing to see.”
@jacobnielson12
—sports@usustatesman.com