When it was time to start recruiting for his brand-new, Division One basketball program, Bryant University coach Tim O'Shea made it clear he'd look anywhere for players.

With his first full class of recruits, O'Shea and his staff were true to their word. The Bulldogs will line up for their second D-1 season in less than two months with players from Senegal, Russia and Australia. Better yet, all three stand at least 6-foot-8.

"We thought that being new to Division One we had to look at unconventional ways to get good players, especially players with size," said O'Shea. "My staff has literally recruited around the world in the last 12 months."

Papa Lo, a 6-9 native of Senegal, sat out last season as a transfer from the University of Massachusetts. He's recovered from knee surgery and is ready for practice to start next month. Claybrin McMath is a 6-8 Australian who has impressed O'Shea with his athleticism. Vladyslav Kondratyev is another 6-8 forward from Ukraine who spent the last two year at the Rock School in Gainesville, Fla.

"With Vlad and Clay, there's no way we could have gotten those two guys if they were playing at prep schools in New England where they'd get more exposure," said O'Shea. "Both of them will help us a lot as freshmen."

American colleges have journeyed around the world for years looking for talent in all sports. A recent NCAA study showed that women's hockey and women's tennis are dominated by foreign-born players. The numbers aren't as profound in basketball but coaches will clearly go anywhere for talent. URI coach Jim Baron is a big booster of the concept. He traveled extensively as an assistant at Notre Dame and was the Panamanian Olympic coach from 1981-91. At St. Bonaventure, three of Baron's best-ever players were Caswell Cyrus (Canada), Peter Van Paassen (Netherlands) and Patricio Prato (Argentina).

"There are so many great players around the world and as part of the process of building a winning program one strategy you have is looking everywhere for the best players," said Baron. "The nice part for me is those guys were also first-class students, too."

At URI, Baron had guard Parfait Bitee (Cameroon) start for three years. He welcomed Ben Eaves (Lancashire, England) to the Rams' program two years ago and this season has high hopes for incoming frosh Lisandro Ruiz-Moreno (Argentina) and Nikola Malesevic (Serbia). One of Baron's assistant coaches, Momir Gajic, is a native of Belgrade, Serbia.

"Everybody is doing it. Look at UCLA. They made the Final Four the last few years with Alfred Aboya (Cameroon), Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (Cameroon) and Nikola Dragovic (Serbia) starting," said Baron. "Go all the way back to Patrick Ewing. He was born in Jamaica. Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) was great for Houston. Steve Nash (Canada) played at Santa Clara."

Providence College does not have a foreign player on its roster in 2009-10 but coach Keno Davis is a fan of the practice, too. "We had some good foreign guys at Drake. We're looking internationally here as well," he said. "You have some work to do eligibility-wise but if we can mix in an international player that can really help us."

Clearing foreign player's eligibility to play in college can be a major stumbling block. European club teams attract the elite talent in their countries and frequently pay teenagers to play with one club over another. That payment in cash or goods is against the NCAA's amateurism rules. The NCAA is considering a rule change where a player could be on a professional team but retain college eligibility if the athlete receives nothing more than actual expenses to compete on that team.

Several foreign players are set to make big impacts in college basketball this season. Solomon Alibi (a Nigerian at Florida State) and A.J. Ogilvy (Australia/Vanderbilt) are two of the top centers in the country. Maryland's Greivis Vasquez (Venezuela) is one of the top guards. Connecticut is thrilled to welcome 6-9 freshman Ater Majok, an Australian citizen born in Sudan, to Storrs. Two of the top newcomers in the Atlantic 10 could be St. Louis forward Cody Ellis (Australia) and Temple forward Carmel Bouchman of Israel.

kmcnamar@projo.com