The case for (and against) international recruiting at Arizona, elsewhere | Michael Lev

For Tucson, international recruiting is not an abstract debate about college sports. It is visible on Arizona’s courts, fields and golf courses, where athletes from around the world are helping represent the university, competing for championships and becoming part of campus life. Nearly half of the Arizona men’s basketball roster this season, seven of 16 players, is international. The UA women’s golf team has six international players and two Americans, while the men’s tennis team recently reached a program first with a roster shaped by a global recruiting strategy.

One of those athletes is Anastasiia Semenova, a fifth-year forward on Arizona’s women’s basketball team. Semenova grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and wanted to follow her older brother, Andrey Semenov, who scored more than 1,200 points while playing at James Madison from 2008 through 2014. Because the COVID pandemic prevented her from showing her abilities in the United States, she created her own recruiting campaign. Semenova gathered email addresses for roughly 1,200 NCAA Division I coaches and sent each one her résumé and video highlights. She eventually signed with Boston University, where she spent four seasons, and transferred to Arizona for her final college season while pursuing a master’s degree in business analytics.

For Semenova, the move fulfilled a long-held ambition to play basketball and study in the United States. She is among thousands of international student-athletes who come to American colleges seeking athletic opportunities, an education and the experience of living in another country. That opportunity, however, is becoming less certain. Overall international enrollment at U.S. colleges fell by almost 20% from 2024 to 2025 and dropped another 9% this year, according to reports cited in the story. A survey by NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, and other organizations found that 84% of participating universities identified restrictive government policies as the largest obstacle facing international students.

The debate has also reached college athletics. Two Republican lawmakers introduced the TEAM USA Act last month, proposing limits on the number of international athletes who could compete in varsity sports. The bill argues that increased recruiting from overseas has reduced roster spots and scholarships available to American athletes. That concern reflects a real tradeoff, particularly in sports with limited roster space and financial aid. But Arizona coaches interviewed for the story questioned whether restricting international athletes would benefit American students enough to justify the loss of cultural and competitive advantages.

Arizona men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd has built much of his career around international recruiting. As an assistant at Gonzaga, he helped bring in players from overseas during the program’s rise to national prominence. At Arizona, his recent teams have included players from Lithuania, Germany, Russia, Australia and the Netherlands. The rotation on last season’s Final Four team featured Motiejus Krivas of Lithuania, Ivan Kharchenkov of Germany and Russia, Anthony Dell’Orso of Australia and Dwayne Aristode of the Netherlands. Lloyd also pointed to visa restrictions that affected recent Arizona players Sidi Gueye and Mabil Mawut, though their situations differed.

Lloyd said the proposed roster limits and restrictive visa policies raised difficult questions about what the United States wants to be. In his view, exposure to people from other cultures and countries is an important educational experience, not an opportunity that should be withheld simply to reserve more places for Americans. Jack Murphy, another Arizona men’s basketball assistant, has likewise discussed the value of international recruiting and the perspective gained through extensive travel overseas. The coaches’ argument is that college athletics can provide Americans with meaningful contact with the rest of the world while also improving the level of competition.

Arizona men’s golf coach Jim Anderson has watched that change unfold in his own program. During each of his first 11 seasons, at least 69% of his players were from the United States. Over the past four seasons, the average American share has fallen to 47.4%. Only four of the 10 players on the 2026-27 team are American. Anderson said he does not begin a season with a target percentage for domestic or international players. Instead, he sees the shift as a result of golf’s increasingly global reach and the growing recognition overseas that U.S. college programs offer young players a chance to develop while earning a degree.

The results at Arizona offer support for that approach. The women’s golf team has not had a majority of American players since 2017, yet the Wildcats won a national championship after the roster balance changed the following year. Two of the most accomplished women’s golfers in Arizona history, Annika Sorenstam of Sweden and Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, were international athletes. The 2025-26 men’s team tied for third nationally and featured Filip Jakubcik of the Czech Republic, Arizona’s first first-team All-American since 2004. The previous season’s roster included athletes from the Czech Republic, China, Japan and Sweden, along with players from Arizona, California and Illinois.

Anderson said international rosters also change how teams relate to one another. Shared meals give golfers, who often compete individually even in a team setting, a chance to discuss their rounds and learn about each other. He believes that daily interaction builds understanding and tolerance while pushing players and coaches beyond familiar surroundings. Men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields made a similar point after Jay Friend clinched Arizona’s 4-3 victory over Oklahoma State on May 10, 2026, sending the Wildcats to the Elite Eight for the first time. Friend was born in Japan and has lived in New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Spain and the Netherlands. To the crowd, Shields said, he was not defined by citizenship. He was representing Arizona, playing for the Block A and helping deliver one of the biggest wins in program history.