For USF Women's Basketball, Hoops is the Common Language

How USF Has Become A Women’s Basketball Melting Pot

December 15, 2024

By Joey Johnston - click to read on WFFTampaBay.com

TAMPA, FL - When the second World Basketball Day is observed on Dec. 21 — the annual United Nations-sponsored celebration of how we’re brought together by 3-pointers, reverse layups, crossover dribbles and that ever-present bouncing ball — an obvious focal point can be found on the University of South Florida campus in Tampa.

USF, the host institution for the NCAA Women’s Final Four on April 4 and 6 at downtown Tampa’s Amalie Arena, provides a graphic showcase for hoops diversity. For more than a decade, Coach Jose Fernandez’s USF women’s basketball team has featured a decided international flavor.

The USF Bulls? They are the world.

“You’ll hear a lot of different accents and native tongues in our locker room,’’ Fernandez said. “But we all speak the language of basketball. It’s universal.’’

Fernandez, in his 25th season as USF’s head coach, found his program’s greatest success when he expanded the recruiting territory to all seven continents. With a passport as thick as the Manhattan phone book (Google it, kids), Fernandez has become a regular at FIBA competitions in South America, Europe and points beyond.

In all, Fernandez has signed players from 26 different countries. On USF’s current 13-player roster, 11 are from outside the United States.

“It’s fascinating,’’ said Bulls guard Sammie Puisis, a native of Ohio. “On a given day, there’s no telling how many different languages you can hear in our gym. The world has gotten smaller and basketball is a great example of that.’’

USF women’s basketball initially gained a foothold during its eight seasons in the Big East Conference, where the competition included noted powerhouses such as UConn, Notre Dame, Louisville and Rutgers. The landscape changed slightly during a wave of conference realignment that sent USF into a repurposed league known as the American Athletic Conference.

“We haven’t gotten the blue-chip player who goes to Connecticut, Notre Dame, Tennessee,’’ Fernandez said. “Players like that don’t do anything different because of the landscape of travel teams, the way recruiting is set up. So we have to do a great job recruiting and developing our players. Sometimes, that means a different approach.’’

Michele Woods-Baxter, a USF assistant coach for 18 seasons, said she remembers when Fernandez widened the program’s recruiting reach, but he never compromised on its principles.

“Jose was like, ‘Let’s look overseas,’ because there were great players there who could help us,’’ Woods-Baxter said. “Jose adjusted very well. He’s very good about recruiting what we ned to fit into our culture and our chemistry.

“If it’s a great player and not so much of a great person, it’s not going to be a fit. Even though we are tapping into different countries and different cultures, the keys are always our locker room (culture) and the long-term development of that player. That’s what our program is all about.’’

Fernandez has leveraged his world-view recruiting strategy into unprecedented success for USF’s program. Before Fernandez’s arrival, the Bulls had never participated in the modern women’s basketball postseason. Now USF has reached nine NCAA Tournaments and earned 18 overall postseason bids, including the 2009 WNIT championship.

“Good players want to play with good players, regardless of where they are from,’’ Fernandez said. “The international players just want to play basketball, get an education and be successful.

“They bring a different mentality, a different style. There’s no entitlement, no handlers telling them where they ought to go to school. Basketball is an avenue for them to get an education. They don’t take any of this for granted.’’

In the last 15 years, USF has signed players from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Israel, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Latvia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the Ukraine and Venezuela.

Four of USF’s international recruits have become WNBA draft picks — Inga Orekhova (the Ukraine, Atlanta Dream, 2014); Laksa (Latvia, Seattle Storm, 2020); Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu (Cameroon, Seattle Storm, 2023); Elena Tsineke (Greece, Washington Mystics, 2023).

Laksa, a 6-foot guard, was first-team All-AAC and the league’s Freshman of the Year. In only 99 games (her 2018 senior season was cut short by a knee injury), Laksa finished with 1,764 points and shot a program-record 96.5-percent from the free-throw line as a junior, missing only four times (111-for-115) all season.

Laksa said it required an initial leap of faith to leave her Latvian hometown of Riga, along the Baltic Sea, and travel more than 5,000 miles to USF’s Tampa campus. She said the journey set herself up for a wonderful life.

“Coach Fernandez brings in the best talent he can find all over the world,’’ said Laksa, who played at USF from 2015-19. “I think it’s great. For me, it doesn’t matter where the other players are from. The language of basketball is the same. We all work toward the same goal.’’

USF’s current team has the same approach. Bulls point guard Mama Dembele, a transfer from Missouri and a native of Spain, said she was attracted by the inclusive nature of USF’s program and its success at developing international players.

“It’s important when you’re so far away from home and you have someone like Coach Jose who understands that and who you know will take good care of your best interests,’’ Dembele said. “He gives you confidence from the beginning. It’s never going to be exactly like home, but he gives you confidence and makes you feel comfortable.

“At the end of the day, when you are sitting in that locker room with your teammates, there are no countries and there are no nationalities. At the end of the day, you’re basketball players. And that’s the most amazing thing about this sport. You might have trouble with the thick accents and not understand some words, but we are fluent in playing basketball. This is a sport that brings people together.’’

Fernandez never imagined his international recruiting would operate at such a high-level scale. But the word has spread and USF’s reputation has allowed the program to be selective while attracting diverse talent.

No other program has a shorter distance — about 12 miles — to reach Amalie Arena, site of this season’s Women’s Final Four and the sport’s promised land. But to position itself for that ultimate goal, no other program has traversed more of the globe.

The USF Bulls.

They are the world.