'We've kind of set the standard over there'

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CHAMPAIGN — Geoff Alexander got a new passport ahead of the Illinois men’s basketball team’s foreign tour to Spain in 2023.

Not even two years later, the Illini assistant coach is running out of space in that very same pocket-size, blue book. Entry and exit stamps have piled up, as he’s traveled extensively in Europe building relationships and evaluating the best young basketball talent the continent has to offer.

Alexander flipped through his passport Thursday morning in his office at Ubben Basketball Complex, showing off a few blank pages that remain and the majority that feature the slew of stamps he’s accumulated in not quite 24 months.

The Illinois coaching staff hit the road later that same day. Passports weren’t a necessity for those trips, though, with AAU events to scout this weekend across the United States.

But Alexander’s passport will continue to get a workout during the course of the next three months. More countries to visit, entry and exit stamps to collect, basketball players to scout and orange pins to add to the map that hangs above his desk of players Illinois has signed from a growing number of places around the world.

First on the travel schedule is the Euroleague Final Four in Abu Dhabi that runs May 23-25. Then come trips to Switzerland, Greece and Serbia between the end of June and early August for multiple FIBA events.

Alexander won’t make these trips alone. Illinois associate head coach Orlando Antigua is also headed to Abu Dhabi, and the pair will split up the European travels in June, July and August.

“O’s is worse,” Alexander said about Antigua’s passport. “Every page is damn near full.”

Antigua, of course, was a literal globe trotter, visiting 49 different countries during his 71/2 years with the Harlem Globetrotters before starting to add to his total as a coach. A recent trip to China was a first.

Alexander and Antigua will each spend 30 days abroad between now and early August. It’s a major commitment. One that’s pushed Illinois to the forefront of international recruiting and has started to pay serious dividends.

Kasparas Jakucionis (Lithuania) and Will Riley (Canada) are about to become the Illini’s first one-and-done NBA players. Both might wind up as lottery picks in the 2025 NBA draft. And next year’s Illini will feature five players with ties to the Balkans. Two Croatians, one Serbian, one Montenegrin and one Greek-Serbian standout.

The beginning

Illinois dabbled in international recruiting early in Brad Underwood’s tenure as coach. Matic Vesel might have only stuck around for the 2017-2018 season, but he was the first straight-from-Europe addition. Also the first Balkan as a native of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Belgian forward Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk made two. Other former Illini like Kofi Cockburn (Jamaica), Andres Feliz (Dominican Republic), Giorgi Bezhanishvili (Georgia), Greg Eboigbodin (Nigeria) and Samba Kane (Senegal) all played high school basketball in the U.S. before winding up in Champaign.

Now, Illinois will have four players on its 2025-26 roster that played in the Adriatic League and another born in Greece to Greek and Serbian parents that wound up a McDonald’s All-American out of California.

Consider the Illini all in on international recruiting.

“You don’t just get to this point by snapping your fingers,” Underwood said, heaping credit on Alexander and Antigua during a recent radio appearance on ‘Saturday SportsTalk’ on WDWS 1400-AM and 93.9-FM. “There’s years of work behind that. Those guys developing relationships with agents, with the people that make decisions over there and are in the know. You combine that with our success, and then word travels.

“NIL, changing that format, has helped tremendously in the fact we can now pay players and be able to be competitive to what their clubs are (paying) over there. A lot of these kids are getting signed when they are 14-15 years old, and they’re still waiting to get to the NBA. Now, this just provides a little different path for them. For many years, we couldn’t get the guys we’re getting now, simply because of the contracts they were under.”

Developing that trust

Alexander recruited his first international player when he was an assistant on Underwood’s coaching staff at Daytona State College in the early 2000s. Got him, too, with Angolan forward Roberto Fortes spending two seasons with the Falcons at the Florida community college before a final year at Illinois State.

The big splash came later and set Alexander on the path he’s followed since.

Landing Fortes was word of mouth and then navigating a tricky immigration situation. It wasn’t until Alexander was recruiting Egidijus Mockevicius to Evansville that he started making trips to Europe and developing the types of relationships that came in handy when recruiting another notable Lithuanian that found is way to Illinois last May.

“It’s pretty cool to see Illinois has started recruiting more and more Europeans,” Jakucionis said earlier this week at the 2025 NBA draft combine in Chicago. “Before me, before Tomislav (Ivisic), there weren’t a lot of European guys coming to Illinois. They trusted me, and I trusted them. Now, you can see they’re trusting in European players.”

Antigua always had an appreciation for the global game given his experience playing for the Dominican Republic on the international stage and his time with the Globetrotters. He used those connections — particularly in the Caribbean — during his time as the coach at South Florida and was instrumental in getting Feliz, Bezhanishvili and Cockburn to Champaign before he returned to Kentucky in 2021.

“I’ve got to give Geoff a lot of credit,” said Antigua, who returned for his second stint on Underwood’s staff before the 2024-25 season. “Right before I left, he started taking on some of that stuff, and he totally expanded it and grew it. I’m able to come in on the back side of it now and continue to expand on the work that he’s done. I don’t think he gets enough credit.”

“You’re listening to the OG,” Alexander interrupted. “Let him talk, but he is.”

“He’s done a lot of great work in building a network of relationships that we are now being able to capitalize on it,” Antigua continued. “We saw an opportunity. He fully committed to going and building those relationships there. I think he’s carved out an unbelievable space for him and for us there. Now, we’re able to amplify it and almost put it on steroids.”

Making the effort

That’s Illinois’ plan.

To become the destination for international basketball recruits. An influx of primarily European imports have happened across the entirety of the Division I landscape this offseason — name, image and likeness a driving force, of course — but the Illini intend on maintaining their place at the top.

It’s why Underwood sent Alexander or Antigua, or sometimes both, on regular trips abroad last season. Roughly every six weeks to maintain a presence and continue to foster relationships. It’s why they’ll each get a month’s worth of time overseas in the next three to do the same.

“We’ve kind of set the standard over there,” Alexander said. “You’d be amazed how many people call in here a day, from Power Five head coaches to assistant coaches, on how we’re going about this, our approach. People are trying to figure it out. It’s work. It’s more effort getting on a plane to Abu Dhabi for 14 hours.”

Relationships can start with phone calls or Zooms. Getting to a point where Illinois can pair Tomislav Ivisic with his twin brother, Zvonimir, and add David Mirkovic and Mihailo Petrovic — all four of whom share the same agent in Misko Raznatovic — required a stronger connection. All those trips to the Balkans mattered.

“When we show up to an event, people notice it because it’s a commitment of time and because not everybody is doing it,” Antigua said. “They appreciate that. They value the fact that you care enough to come out there, to their space. ... Once you get face-to-face with them, there’s a different level of appreciation. There’s a different value that they see you care about their kids and what they’re doing. Their team. Their club. People are prideful. No different than we are. You make the effort, and it gets appreciated.”

Traveling adventures

Not every trip abroad goes off without a hitch, however.

Like the time Alexander was almost stuck at the Belgrade airport in Serbia because of an unfortunate incident after a long flight that left him “exhausted” and “frazzled mentally.”

“I put diesel in my car,” he said. “I pulled out and (grinding engine noises ensued).”

An eight-hour delay to get a different car meant an overnight trip to get to Niš, Serbia — three hours from Belgrade — for the 2023 FIBA U18 European championship where Jakucionis was playing for Lithuania.

Then, the time a direct flight from Milan, Italy, to Belgrade didn’t happen to include Alexander’s bag. He touched based immediately with Antigua.

“I call O, and I say, ‘O, I’ve got a problem,’” Alexander said. “He’s literally the mayor of Belgrade. He makes one phone call and gets to the airport director, and it’s his buddy. He called the airline, and I had my bag within a couple hours.”

Antigua has had his own travel mishaps. Like the time he was in Hamburg, Germany, with former Kentucky coach John Calipari following Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with Team USA at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship.

That one involved a rental car, too. Driving stick was fine for Antigua, whose wife, Dana, taught him how. That everything in the car was in German was not.

“I could not figure out how to change the language on all the instructions,” Antigua said. “That took me 40 minutes with a very patient head coach sitting there. You could imagine the side bullets I was getting — the eyes. That wasn’t very fun.”

The lesson learned?

“You try to avoid, at all costs, rental cars,” Alexander said.

Geopolitics and environmental disasters can also wreak havoc with recruiting trips abroad. Alexander canceled one to Heraklion, Greece, on the island of Crete last year because the U.S. was moving warships into the Mediterranean Sea at the same time.

Alexander is also keeping an eye on Crete again after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit earlier this week. The plan is to be there in July for the 2025 FIBA U20 EuroBasket.

Probably.

“(The earthquake) is triggering tsunamis, and you’re sitting there on an island,” Alexander said. “There’s a different attention to certain things you have to be aware of.”

Always evaluating

Illinois’ international recruiting efforts haven’t come at the expense of recruiting stateside. This weekend marks the first evaluation period of the spring beyond the G League Elite Camp and 2025 NBA draft combine in Chicago.

Nike’s EYBL circuit is in Memphis, Tenn., this weekend, and Class of 2027 forward Jaylan Mitchell is a top Illinois target. The five-star forward runs with Bradley Beal Elite on the circuit and is headed to SPIRE Academy in Ohio after playing the last two years at Evansville Reitz High School in Indiana.

Puma’s Pro16 League stopping in Wichita, Kan., makes it another go-to destination. Particularly with Class of 2026 guard Alex Constanza — a five-star guard out of Westminster Academy in Florida — one of the top players on the circuit. Both Mitchell and Constanza visited Illinois during the 2024-25 season.

The level of evaluation Alexander and Antigua can get at FIBA events overseas, though, is typically higher than what’s possible on the shoe-brand circuits in the U.S.

“It’s a different type because most times you’re over there and you’re watching them play for their country,” Alexander said. “There’s a different level of intensity. They’re playing for their country, and there’s a lot of prideful kids out there representing.”

Evaluations can be more nuanced because those national teams are more structured. Some players fill a role. Others are stars. And they’ve all been practicing together, sometimes for four to five weeks, ahead of those tournaments. If not for years in their respective national team systems.

“There’s sometimes years of synergy of those teams being together since they’ve been 14 years old and now they’re at the U20s,” Antigua said. “There’s a consistency that happens. There’s some growth.”

The trips Alexander and Antigua are set to take this summer, in some instances, will fall outside of the typical evaluation periods on the recruiting calendar. The NCAA changed its bylaws to approve those actions during quiet periods as long as they’re sanctioned FIBA events. It’s an extra step on the recruiting trail the Illini choose to make.

“On top of everything going on over here, your calendar expands,” Alexander said. “You’re going to spend more time out and about. ... It’s a commitment. We go over there and value the relationships with these agents, these people. They want to see you over there just like coaches, parents and AAU people here want to see you.”

Expanding their reach

Seeing and being seen helped foster the relationships that led to this offseason’s raid of the Adriatic League. Mirkovic played for SC Derby, which also produced both Ivisic twins, and Petrovic starred for Mega.

“They’ve got a squad, for sure,” Riley said about the team Illinois put together for the 2025-26 season. “They’re going to show that basketball is a thing everywhere in the world. I think it’s really cool that people are finally starting to notice overseas basketball players.”

The process that brought the Balkans together in orange and blue, Antigua said, was organic.

Previous relationships, helped, of course, with Antigua coaching Zvonimir Ivisic at Kentucky and recruiting Stojakovic out of high school. But Illinois’ needs lined up with the opportunity and access to players — via their noted Serbian agent in Raznatovic — to fill necessary holes on the roster.

And, outside of Stojakovic, all with players who had experience in a top professional league in Europe. One that includes more than just Balkan stars.

Eight former Big Ten players were on Adriatic League rosters this past season. Buducnost, in Montenegro, had the most with Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell and Juwan Morgan and Maryland’s Rasheed Sulaimon. Then there was Penn State’s Rasir Bolton (Spartak), Minnesota’s Nate Mason (Dubai), Iowa’s Peter Jok (Cibona), Ohio State’s Duane Washington Jr. (Partizan) and Wisconsin’s Tyler Wahl (Zadar).

Also in the league during the 2024-25 season was honorary Illini Mike Daum, who played two summers with House of Paign in The Basketball Tournament after an All-American caliber career at South Dakota State. Not to mention former NBA players like Frank Ntilikina, Milos Teodosic, Davis Bertans, Isaiah Canaan, Aleksej Pokusevski, Isaac Bonga and Udoka Azubuike.

Trent Frazier also spent part of his first season in the Adriatic League with KK FMP during the 2022-23 season before landing at Zenit Saint Petersburg. The former Illinois guard has remained in Russia and racked up multiple honors.

“You’re talking about bona fide, really good, college players that are professionals you get to size them up against,” Alexander said about evaluating players in the Adriatic League. “They’re not just playing against their peers. They’re playing against grown men. They’re having to handle the physicality.”

Signing young and rising through the ranks with those professional organizations is also a positive. Like Jakucionis did at Barcelona, where he practiced regularly against the likes of former NBA veterans Jabari Parker and Ricky Rubio. The basketball education extends beyond games played.

“They get a chance to learn,” Antigua said. “They don’t have any restrictions on time and practice. They spend a lot of time on honing their skills. What we’re able to do here is add the strength and conditioning, the intensity. They bring their skill level and their IQ and their feel.”

That combination was a fit for Jakucionis, who reiterated his happiness with choosing the Illini during his time in Chicago this week prepping to become a likely lottery pick in next month’s NBA draft. And the Lithuanian guard continues to see Illinois as a fit for Europe’s best interested in college basketball.

“I think just the coaching style and playing style fits well,” Jakucionis said. “You have to understand basketball playing at Illinois. You have to have an IQ, understand the game. Be dialed in. Be coachable.”

The Balkans conquered, Illinois has its sights set on expanding its recruiting reach to other corners of the globe. They’ve focused on hitting the places that boast the best basketball players in the world. As the game grows, so do the recruiting options.

“We got into China and are making inroads there,” Antigua said. “We’ve got to get to Russia. I’ve been to Australia a couple times. Then we’ve got to find the countries in Africa that we need to get to. We’ll have a busy few weeks coming up, but, honestly, Geoff and I appreciate and enjoy the basketball, the cultures.”

Whatever it takes to continue to make Illinois a college basketball destination for players everywhere.

“What a lot of people are asking is, the globe’s so big, how do you know where all the guys are?” Alexander said. “There’s a certain amount of events that if you get to, you’re going to see the globe. All those events are going to attract all those kids there. We just have an understanding between the two of us of where to go, when to go and how to go about it.”