Is there a way to get scholarship to play basketball in USA if someone is from Europe?

Question

My brother is 16 years old and he would love to keep playing basketball after high school. Is there a way to get a scholarship to an American college to play basketball or getting into an American basketball program if someone is from Europe? Explain a way for this situation.

Answer 1

The general way is just the same for a European player as it is for an American player: get noticed by a college team, persuade them you're good enough. The problem for a European player is the "get noticed" part: while colleges have very efficient operations for finding the best high school players in the US, they do very little recruiting in Europe, just due to the costs involved for a tiny number of players. Hence you're going to have to do your own "marketing":

• Identify a set of colleges you're going to target. Make sure these are at the right level - there's no point targeting a Div I college unless your brother is really, really good (at least playing national juniors, or very close to), and similarly there's no point you targeting a Div III college as they're not allowed to give sporting scholarships.
• Get your marketing material over to the colleges - game time film, recommendations from coaches, anything else you've got that shows how good your brother is.

Also, be very, very careful about anything your brother does with a professional team in Europe. The NCAA's requirements around amateur status are incredibly strict, and if you violate those requirements then you're never going to play NCAA basketball, no matter how good you are.

Finally the reality check: be prepared to accept that your brother probably isn't going to make it. Getting a college scholarship is very hard for US high school players, and even harder for Europeans.