John Blanchette: Eagles’ Aussies love tourney atmosphere

PORTLAND, Ore. – The thrill of the miracle in Missoula had barely ebbed when the giddy wave of Selection Sunday washed over the Eastern Washington Eagles – and in particular their small Australian regiment who had no ready reference to any similar spectacle back home.

“Maybe the election?” offered Felix Von Hofe.

Ooh, now there’s an idea. Have a runoff ballot to determine automatic qualifiers to Congress, then a committee can fill out the other half of the chamber with at-large selections based on RPI (Raving Political Inanity). After that, Doug Gottlieb can snarkily attack the choices when they’re announced on TV – between ads featuring Samuel Jackson and Barles Charkley.

“God bless America,” Von Hofe laughed.

He means it to be funny and he means it sincerely, for life in the states and the purely American carnival of college basketball indeed have been a blessing for Eastern’s Aussies – who have been pretty OK for the Eagles, too.

A billion Chinese may not give a rip about March Madness, but the game does have a small foothold beyond our shores, and especially in Australia. What started in recruiting dribs and drabs two decades ago and later crystallized at Saint Mary’s has spread to pockets across America – Albany, Nicholls State, Boise. Seventeen of the 54 Aussies playing Division I basketball are on teams in the bracket, and three of the 17 – Von Hofe, Venky Jois and Daniel Hill – suit up for the Eags, who make their second tournament appearance Thursday against Georgetown.

The big, wide world has never been quite so small as it is now. International players on college rosters barely amount to a curiosity. That tends to undervalue what a big deal it is to those who cross the pond, and how tough it can be on their families.

Jois’ parents just headed home to Boronia – a Melbourne suburb – on Monday after a two-week visit, and Jennifer Jois remembered the day coach Jim Hayford slid the scholarship agreement across the table toward her son.

“He said, ‘This is my dream, mum,’ ” she recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, you have to take it.’

“I mentioned it to someone and they said, ‘And you’re going to let him go?’ How could you not? Because if you deny a child chasing their dream, they never know if it would have worked out.”

Here’s how it’s worked out for Jois: he’s twice an All-Big Sky selection, and is one of the cornerstones of Eastern’s climb from 21 losses two years ago to a school-record 26 wins this season. Even if Eastern remains on one of college basketball’s blue highways, this is a level of celebrity the 6-foot-8 junior didn’t imagine.

“Many more people in America know who I am than in Australia,” he said. “I doubt many there know my name.”

This is due to the game’s place in the sports consciousness several rungs down from Australian rules football and rugby, of course, but also of his own Down-under-the-radar stature. By contrast, Von Hofe came through the prominent Australian Institute of Sport program that seemed like a direct pipeline to Saint Mary’s for so many years.

Still, Von Hofe’s discovery by Hayford wasn’t much different.

“He has a friend over there who called and asked, ‘You need a lanky, good-looking shooter,’ ” Von Hofe cracked. “And, of course, there’s nothing coach likes more.”

The best seat in the house at Eastern might be at the locker next to Von Hofe. A conversational sampler:

• On the AIS: “They’ve changed the name of it. It’s now the Australian Center of Excellence. Fancied it up. Like ‘The Center for Extraordinary Beautiful People.’ Or what’s the thing in ‘Zoolander?’ (That would be The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too).”

• On his biggest adjustment to college basketball: “Athletes. Believe it or not, there’s a rough thought back home that I’m somewhat athletic.”

• On food: “When we have bacon back home, we actually have the bacon and not the rind of the bacon which is somehow served over here as a delicacy.”

Von Hofe’s smart patter and Jois’ on-court fire are a nice complement to some of Eastern’s quieter personalities – but that’s just happy residue of the kind of cross-cultural layering that occurs with the recruitment of international players. Among other things, their level of gratitude can be nothing but a positive in what’s often an arena of entitlement – for as Hill noted, “To be able to play and get a degree – you can’t do that anywhere else in the world.”

Echoed Jois, “This is something Australia should be envious of – the social aspect of 10,000 college kids leaving their homes to do this. As a social and life experience, college in America is amazing.”

And that’s even before you mix in Selection Sunday.