LAND DOWN UNDER
How UAlbany has sustained its Australian pipeline
ALBANY, N.Y. » Cameron Healy looked down at his fingers, as if expecting to see a ring when he knew no ring was there. He’d just his finished his post-practice 3-point shooting exercises, still breathing a little heavy.
Looking for the rings, it was a joke. The freshman guard came to UAlbany from Sydney, Australia with thoughts of winning a title or two. He’d seen former UAlbany guard and countryman Peter Hooley hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer on ESPN to send Albany to the NCAA Tournament in 2015.
He knew about the five Australian players in the last four years, all starters, all successful, all ring-wielding champions that had been the start of an Australian pipeline into New York’s capital.
“Seeing what they’ve done, and knowing that Aussies have had success here that have been similar to us, that meant a lot to us,” Healy said. “That meant that we had the opportunity to come in and do what they’ve done. Carry on in their footsteps.”
Australia has become a breeding ground for successful UAlbany players over the last halfdecade. And the most recent recruiting class is a reflection of that success. Healy is just one of three freshmen from down under, along with Adam Lulka and Brent Hank.
The Great Danes open their season at home against Iona on Nov. 10, and those three will be among the new faces on a roster that returns its top five scorers from last year.
Before Australia was the go-to spot for head coach Will Brown, he’d recruit players from Iowa, with the last in that line, Dallas Ennema, graduating after last season. Albany isn’t the only Division-I school to recruit Aus-
tralian players — St. Mary’s has by far been the most successful. But for a small, mid-major program like the one Brown runs, having a steady pipline can create an avenue for recruiting better players.
“The problem is more and more people are recruiting Australia now because there’s no language barrier,” Brown said. “There’s good basketball over there. Tough kids and they’re usually good students. I don’t know if we can have 13 Australians on our roster... these guys are going to help us recruit going forward, we’ve just got to make sure they have a positive experience.”
The recruiting pitch is a cycle in and of itself. They come and visit, see the photos of players they know well. They see, what is simply known as “the shot”, a buzzer-beating, championship-winning 3-pointer from Hooley to beat Stony Brook.
They see the list of names. They have all their phone numbers. For kids traveling 30 hours and a world away, their comfort is assured by evidence of those that have come before them.
The recruiting of Australian players is done mostly by Great Danes assistant and Troy native Josh Pelletier. Though the pipleline started with former assistant Jeremy Friel. The best recruiters might be the families of those players who have already come through the system. During the recruiting process, they are given all their contact information.
“I’ve spoken to a few of the past players, they told me what it’s like to come here and play. “Lulka said. “... It’s a massive culture shock to come over here. It’s a lot different from what we’re used to. Coming over here knowing you have two friends who you’ve grown up with, just coming here makes the process a lot easier for us.”
Each of the three new players say that the comfortability factor was solidly the reason they came to Albany. Lulka, who will redshirt this year, and Healy were friends since the age of 14. They came on their official visit together and decided to commit together. Hank knew of his teammates from basketball leagues before coming to Albany.
Brown acknowledged he was a little worried when Australian Mike Rowley graduated that the pipeline would dry up. That maybe their secret wasn’t so secret anymore. That’s what had happened with the Iowa pipeline. There was a fear that getting quality players wouldn’t be as simple as it had been.
That was the fear. But the truth was that what Brown and Albany had built was strong enough to sustain another Australian-heavy recruiting class.
“It’s good, we have an Aussie culture going a little bit,” Healy said. “The pipeline got passed down. We’re just hoping to carry the torch that’s been passed down to us.”