Australians invading college hoops
By Chris Furnari
Patrick Mills, the starting point guard for the Saint Mary's College basketball team, skips up to his home court against Nicholls State on Nov. 24, 2007. Mills is a slender 6 foot, 1 inch guard with an athletic frame. Although he does not have a large build, his presence on the court screams greatness. Dribbling the ball in his left hand, Mills meets his defender a few feet in front of the three-point line. After a ball screen, Mills makes a quick move to the left. In a flash, he spins to the right, transferring the ball effortlessly from his left to his right hand. Another defender slides over, while the original Colonel's defender attempts to recover after being embarrassed by the quicker, more agile Mills. Mills makes another quick cut back to the left, splitting the two defenders on his way to the hoop. A finger roll takes one bounce on the back of the iron and drops in. Just another day at the office.
At first glance, Mills might seem like your ordinary guard from the states, but a second look at his biography will tell you that he hails from Canberra, Australia. He is one of 32 Australians currently playing Division I basketball in the United States, according to www.aussiehoopsamerica.com, a Web site that tracks the progress of Australian players at all levels of basketball in the United States. He is also one of eight players -- on five different teams -- that participated in the 2008 NCAA Division I tournament. In the West Coast Conference, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount all feature players on their rosters from the land Down Under.
The number of Australians filtering their way into college programs has been noticeably high recently. Just last year, Australia had nine players travel to the U.S. to play for Division I programs. In addition, another nine players left Australia last year to play at the Division II level.
Due to the recent influx of Australian basketball players in America, media outlets have latched onto what is slowly becoming known as the Australian invasion. Much of the recent media attention surrounding the Aussies stems from the 2005 NBA draft's No. 1 selection, Andrew Bogut. Bogut was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks after playing just two seasons at Utah. His impressive collegiate career and first season in the NBA caught the attention of many college coaches around the nation. Bogut averaged 9.4 points per game and seven rebounds per game in his first season in the NBA. At Utah, he was named the 2004-05 national player of the year by ESPN and Basketball Times after leading the nation with 26 double-doubles.
"Bogut made it easier to see because he was the No. 1 pick of the draft," said Kerry Keating, men's head basketball coach at Santa Clara. "The draft heightens everyone's awareness."
Much of the hype surrounding Australians has originated from Moraga, Calif., where a small Catholic university by the name of Saint Mary's College is quickly becoming one of the most popular spots for Australians to end up. The Gaels roster currently features four Australians, and they are expecting one more to join next season. St. Mary's also previously had on their roster Adam Capehorn and Daniel Kickert, who have since graduated, bringing the school's total to seven players in the last decade alone. Kickert is currently playing with the national team, who recently placed 13th at the 2006 FIBA World Championships. I was able to witness the hype firsthand.
After driving through a windy two-lane road in Moraga, I arrived at McKeon Pavilion, which is nestled in the back of the small campus. As I walked through the glass doors and onto the courts, I immediately noticed the four players involved in a photo shoot. Ben Allen, a 6-foot-11-inch transfer from Indiana, originally from Melbourne, sits in a chair as a photographer snaps pictures from all angles. Mills, along with Carlin Hughes and Lucas Walker, wait off to the side for their time in front of the camera. Allen is dressed in his number 21 blue-and-red Gael's home jersey and is wrapped in an Australian Flag. He keeps a straight face as if to say, "Come and get me."
For Allen and the rest of the Australians at Saint Mary's, this is an everyday experience. At home games, the public-address announcer will chant "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!" The crowd responds, "Oi, Oi, Oi!" An Australian flag hangs on the wall. Men at Work's "Land Down Under" is a regular jam heard over the stadium loudspeakers.
Certainly the game-day activities are focused around the arrival of the Aussies. But there is a certain allure to the players that is not only catching the attention of fans and media, but many coaches across the nation. If you walk down the corridor, past the locker rooms and through two sets of doors, you will find yourself inside the office of Randy Bennett, head men's basketball coach. Black leather chairs and a sofa give his office a sleek, business-like feel.
Fresh off a typical three-hour practice session with his team, Bennett, who is fitted in gray Saint Mary's basketball sweats and blue team polo, sinks into the sofa and rubs what little hair is left on his head. He is perhaps the foremost authority on recruiting Australians, having built a strong pipeline with the country over the past decade.
"We got in there early," said Bennett. "There was a period there where not a lot of kids were going to college, and I think we came about the time where kids wanted to."
While the size of the ball and the height of the hoop doesn't vary, the attraction to Australian basketball players lies in their maturity, according to Bennett. Much of their growth, both physically and mentally, stems from the time many of them spend at the Australian Institute of Sport.
The AIS is an elite fitness center that features 35 sport programs in 26 sports. The program is widely accepted as the premier training facility in Australia, as many of the nation's top Olympic-caliber athletes live and train at the institute. Established in 1981 after Australia failed to win a single Olympic gold medal in the 1976 games, the AIS was founded to promote Australian success in international sporting competition. Basketball was one of the original eight sports established when the program began.
It's no wonder that more coaches are beginning to recruit more heavily from the Aussie nation, as a majority of the recruiting process has already been performed when coaches arrive to scout players from the AIS. The AIS selects the 14 best players from various provincial teams around the entire country and provides scholarships for them to attend the institute. There, players will work out up to three times a day, play up to 70 games per year, and visit five or six countries to play different national teams before they even turn 19.
"Their commitment to being a player, in general, it is going to be pretty high," said Bennett. "They are leaving their country and they are leaving their families. They are not coming over to party because if they wanted to party, they would stay in Australia. They are coming over here to have a basketball career and get an education."
Commitment is something that Santa Clara's Ben Dowdell is familiar with. In his first game at the West Coast Conference tournament, he registered eight points in just 29 minutes of action against San Francisco. The next day, he played 36 minutes against the tournament's top seed and No. 22-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. He scored seven points and pulled down four boards in a tough four-point loss. While this sort of behavior is not uncommon among starting players on a team without much of a bench, Dowdell's story is an interesting one.
Dowdell, only a freshman, stepped into the starting role on a team that had graduated six seniors -- three of whom were starters -- just one year earlier. Dowdell was also playing through multiple injuries and is now scheduled to undergo surgery on both hips during the off-season. It is this relentless pursuit of victory that is evident in the way he practices and plays during games. Dowdell started 29 of the 30 games the Broncos played and averaged 29.7 minutes. Dowdell scored 243 points and pulled down 114 rebounds in his first year, good enough for fourth on the team. He was also third in steals with 22, and only committed 73 turnovers, the fewest among the four regular starters. Dowdell attributes much of this early development to his time spent at the AIS.
"The AIS helps immensely for us to get up to the level that America and the rest of the world is at," said Dowdell. "Junior basketball in Australia and basketball in general is not very good, so it's helping us meet the standards of the rest of the world."
Dowdell will often hit the floor so hard during games that it's hard to believe he gets back up and continues playing. Perhaps this toughness comes from his introduction to basketball. Growing up, Dowdell's next door neighbor had a ring attached to the wall that was about eight feet off the ground. Dowdell and his neighbor used to jump off the fence and try to dunk the ball. Before long, he was taller than everyone else his age. He began playing hoops at age six.
Keating has a different story. He believes that Dowdell's time spent at the AIS has made him more game-ready, despite just being a freshman. He is receiving more playing time because he understands the game better and is more physically mature.
"He has done an admirable job of playing through some injuries, and he has played hard and taken a lot of bumps and bruises in practice," said Keating. "He has never once complained, and he has been diligent about keeping himself on the floor."
Staying healthy is something all the players who emerge from the AIS learn very early on. According to Bennett, players at the AIS learn how to take care of their bodies to ensure that they can remain ready to play come game time.
"They learn how to tape their own ankles and how to give themselves a massage," said Bennett. "They learn how to take care of themselves physically, nutritionally and mentally."
It's no wonder that the players who emerge from the AIS are more mature and developed than American players. At the institute, youth athletes are surrounded by the most dedicated Olympic athletes in the country and are taking advantage of the most state-of-the-art equipment around.
Sam Sculli, the assistant men's coach at Santa Clara, recalled traveling to Australia to pay a visit to both the AIS and other provincial training facilities. Coming up the driveway, you get a sense of being in an elite athletic environment. When you walk through the doors of the warehouse that house the basketball facilities, you are suddenly transported to basketball heaven. There you are, standing on four courts with new flooring. There you are, watching 14 of the best basketball players in the country, running the court in drills, pick-up games and shoot-arounds. It doesn't end there. Those 14 players fortunate enough to attend the institute also get to take advantage of a world-class weight room that Bennett claims is three times the size of the gym at Saint Mary's.
With such incredible facilities, it's almost hard to imagine that a player would ever leave. However, players are only allowed to spend two years at the AIS, at which point they either travel overseas to play collegiate ball in the U.S. or attempt to make the squad of one of the pro teams in the NBL, Australia's professional league. College, however, is the best option available to them because the current system in Australia does not really have much of a place for those 19-24-year-old players looking to continue their pursuit of basketball greatness. Because of the way the education system is set up in Australia, players can sometimes arrive at the AIS already having finished their academics. High school incorporates grade levels seven through ten, and college includes grades eleven and twelve. After college, they can attend what is known as university, or the equivalent of college in America. However, those who attend the AIS will forego two years of academics and focus strictly on basketball. If players have yet to finish the last year of schooling, they will attend a program, separate from the AIS, and complete their education while simultaneously training three times a day. After two years of experience at the AIS, players must then choose where they will continue their education, basketball careers or both. For most, the best option is coming to America.
"Choosing to come over to college in the first place, I believe, was the best option for me to pursue my dreams, which is hopefully one day playing in the NBA and the Olympics," said Mills. "Coming over to college was the best option for my development because being with a real tight unit and having good coaches is crucial."
But it's the American coaches who are benefiting the most, especially the coaches on the West Coast. Tim Coakley, the founder of aussiehoopsamerica.com, explains that the way Australians approach the sport in general is a major draw for coaches to recruit from the land Down Under. They tend to be more interested in success as a team, rather than as individuals, and most of the Australian players are very humble when it comes to speaking about their individual feats or successes. Many college coaches find these qualities to be great additions to their programs.
Because of this, recruiting in Australia has actually changed the entire recruiting game, and it seems that smaller schools have taken advantage of the trend more so than larger schools. Many of the schools in the West Coast Conference know that they can't compare with the recruiting ability of big-time programs such as UCLA or North Carolina when it comes to scouting the best American talent. So schools like Saint Mary's and Santa Clara look for the best Australian talent, and are smart in their recruiting methods. These small schools can guarantee the Australians playing time, something the bigger schools usually cannot. Smaller universities can sell their schools on the merits of a complete experience, not just the basketball.
Often times, a smaller college is a better fit for Australians for reasons that don't include basketball. The schools on the West Coast will sell the fact that the climate is similar to Australia. Also, smaller schools generally have smaller venues where games are played. Coakley explains that many of the players coming over from Australia are not used to playing in front of 14,000 fans. West Coast schools that can only fill a stadium with 5,000 fans can sometimes be a draw for players who may feel intimidated playing in front of larger crowds.
This recruiting method was a major reason why Dowdell -- who chose Santa Clara because of the Engineering program as well as the opportunity to play -- is on the West Coast.
Still, the pool of talent in Australia is relatively small. Only 14 players are given the opportunity to train at the AIS, for two years. The institute specifically recruits 14 players in the same year so they can play together for two years. This year, only one player, Clinton Steindl, will be leaving the institute. He will be heading to Saint Mary's, and continuing the growing trend of Australian basketball players in America. Who knows, maybe next year, Steindl will be the one splitting two Colonel defenders and dropping in the easy finger-roll. Just another day at the office.
Contact Chris Furnari at (408) 551-1918 or cfurnari@scu.edu.