Basketball is an increasingly globalized game, and college teams are taking note.
The last three players to win the NBA MVP over the past six seasons were born outside of the United States. So were each of the last two No. 1 picks in the NBA draft. In fact, the top two picks this year were from France. While the U.S. is still producing plenty of stars, the rest of the world is rapidly catching up. That has led many college programs to ramp up their international recruiting, and that shift in priorities is bringing some of the most highly touted young players in the world stateside. Among them: potential 2025 first-round draft picks Egor Demin, who left Real Madrid for BYU, and Kasparas Jakucionis, who departed Barcelona to enroll at Illinois.
