INTERVIEWING:
LUCA VIRGILIO
- Interviews
- 3 March 2025
We’re officially back with a new episode of Inside Magazine and this time we have a guest who knows the NCAA world from the inside. I’m talking about Luca Virgilio, the director of basketball strategy at Nebraska University.
Luca began his career in Europe in the scouting environment, working for Stella Azzurra Roma, one of the biggest basketball academies in Italy, and contributing to Eurohopes, a European-based scouting service. From those experiences, he made his way to the NCAA world, first as a graduate assistant for St. John’s University, first for coach Steve Lavin, and then for Chris Mullin.
Luca had a key role in recruiting European prospects like Amar Alibegovic and Federico Mussini to St. John’s during his time there. With Luca, we talked about his overall experience in the NCAA, how much college basketball has changed since the introduction of the NIL deals, and why college basketball is becoming an increasingly intriguing opportunity for International prospects.
Q: The first thing that I wanted to ask you, Luca, is how your journey started in the
NCAA world? You began working for St. John's, how did that happen? And how
much did your International knowledge help you during that experience?
Luca Virgilio: “I started working for St.John's University under coach Steve Lavin as a
graduate assistant. Graduate assistant is an entry-level position for those who want
to enter the NCAA world without a proper knowledge of the system. I was very lucky
to have the opportunity to work at St.John's. I used to work at Stella Azzurra
Academy in Rome and at the same time, I was working for Eurohopes.com, which
really helped me navigate the European basketball landscape, scouting all the young
and upcoming players at the time. You know, college basketball, when I started,
wasn't really that big in recruiting from Europe. Only a few colleges were recruiting
internationally, like Gonzaga. St.John's was really looking for somebody to help them
understand how things work in Europe. Colleges usually make trips overseas during
the summer, they're allowed to do that once every four years, so I started to talk with
St.John's staff when they came over and I was really intrigued by that opportunity.
So a year after we started our conversation, I joined them as a graduate assistant
and my responsibility was mostly to help with International recruiting. We recruited
Amar Alibegovic during my first year there and I was tasked to recruit Federico
Mussini the following year. But, of course, college basketball is a very dynamic world
and after my first year at St.John's, the school decided to change head coach,
replacing Steve Lavin with Chris Mullin. Coach Mullin decided to keep me on his
staff, I was very lucky and blessed, and I worked for him for four years. In the end,
we were able to convince Mussini to join St.John's.”
Q: Luca, as someone who had a scouting background like you, what kind of
characteristics of your former role did you bring into your new experience in college
basketball?
Luca Virgilio: “Well, I'd definitely say a lot of curiosity and trying to understand the
dynamics that go into college basketball. For Americans, it can be hard to
understand how basketball works in Europe, just like for us Europeans can be
difficult to realize how the college basketball system works at first. There are 364
teams, three different conferences, and a non-conference schedule. So for me, at
first, it was trying to realize exactly where I was, and the people that I was working
with. Because, for example, a player who comes from Montana is very different from
a guy who comes from Alabama, just like in Europe a guy coming from Serbia is very
different from a guy coming from Spain, there are different personalities and different
backgrounds. And then, of course, networking. I tried to keep my contacts in Europe
as close as possible, because in this job information is essential, so you need to
have sources and understand how reliable they are, and in the meanwhile I tried to
build new connections inside the college basketball environment”.
Q: Luca, now, of course, you're working for Nebraska University as director of
basketball strategy, so the first thing I wanted to ask you is to describe your role
inside the organization to those who are not familiar with the college basketball
world.
Luca Virgilio: “Well, when you look at a college, you have pretty much two sides of
the business: you have a player development/coaching side of the business and
then you have an operational/recruiting side of the business, although recruiting can
go both ways. When I started to work in college basketball, I didn't really know which
direction I wanted to go, but since I don't have a playing background, I thought that it
was a hole that I couldn't fill like there's always gonna be somebody with more
experience than me because they played at a high level during their careers. So, I
decided to focus more on the management aspect. After my first two years as a
graduate assistant at St.John's, I started to work as a director of basketball
operations, so running everything that is not on the floor but that goes around the
court. That's pretty much what I'm doing also here at Nebraska, I oversee all the
operations programs, I'm in charge of the finances of our basketball program, I report
directly to the CFO of the university when it comes to the budget. At the same time,
though, I also oversee our International recruiting program because I have those
strong connections overseas”.
Q: “As you mentioned, college basketball has changed quite a bit since you got into it. Especially in recent years, with the creation of the NIL deals and the opportunity for the athletes to get paid. So, how much these changes have impacted your everyday’s work and activities?”
Luca Virgilio: “Of course, it had a huge impact on our activity. NIL deals started a few
years ago and, as you mentioned, now players have the opportunity to earn from the
name, image, and likeness. This move reshaped the entire college basketball
business and it’s gonna change again next year with the revenue sharing because
colleges are gonna be allowed to pay athletes themselves, not as employees, but
still, we’re gonna be allowed to pay directly name, image, and likeness to the
players. Another huge change was the transfer portal. Until two years ago, if you
wanted to transfer from one college to another one, you were forced to sit for a
season, now that limitation no longer exists and players can move to another college
and play right away for their new school. So, we could say that college has now
turned into a semi-pro or fully pro sport. By definition, the players are still not
considered pros but because of the recent changes, they can make money as if they
were professionals. So, now, every year you need to rebuild your roster because
there’s the opportunity to add talent, but there’s also the risk of losing players if they
decide to move to another school. The NIL deals completely changed our world and
now they’re, probably, the most important element to consider in our environment”.
Q: We’re seeing more and more International players deciding to move to the US to
play in the NCAA. In your opinion, Luca, which are the main elements that can lure a
European prospect to the US? And do you believe that this trend will grow even
more in the coming years?
Luca Virgilio:“Yes, I believe that this trend will continue and will become even bigger
in the future for different reasons. I believe there's a lack of resources as of right now
in Europe, I don't think there's a straight plan for a 19-year-old kid to go from the
youth team to the first one. Young players often don't find minutes in Europe and
they're stuck on the bench until they're 22-23. The second main aspect, of course, is
the financial one. With the NIL deals now players are allowed to get paid in the
NCAA, the amount of money that you can make in the NCAA, although often there's
a lot of smoke about the real numbers, is really intriguing for a European player.
Clubs in Europe don't have an interest in investing a lot of money in the future, they
focus on the present, so they don't invest in younger players. Those are the two main
elements that are gonna drive European players to the NCAA but not only them, I'm
also talking about South American kids, and Australian kids, although in Australia
they're trying to mitigate this situation by finding a new approach in retaining talent in
their country. I really believe that now the top 20-25 players in Europe they're gonna
try to come to the NCAA unless they have a straight path to play relevant minutes for
their pro clubs”.
Q: The majority of the American kids playing in college dream of playing in the NBA
but, of course, not all of them can get to that level, there's simply not enough spots
for everybody. So, most of them have to adjust to the idea of playing professionally
overseas, either in Europe or in other continents. Based on your experience, what
are the biggest adjustments that these kids need to face when they make that
transition from college to the professional environment?
Luca Virgilio: “As you said, there are a lot of players coming out of college who
believe they can play in the NBA and for them, it's gonna take a couple of years to
realize that it's not gonna happen. So, the first couple of years they try to go to the G
League, they're willing to make less money in the G League in order to keep their
NBA dream alive. And when that doesn't happen, they have to realize that their path
is gonna be different and they're gonna go to Europe. Another aspect to keep in
mind is that a lot of American kids don't know much about Europe, the different
cultures, and how hard it is to play overseas. That's why is so important to have a
good agent. This is something that I always tell our players when they're done
playing in college. You can start your career in Europe in a country in which you
don't know the language, you might not get paid on time, and there can be plenty of
obstacles, so that's why having a good agent that can drive you and guide you
through that kind of experience. Having a good impact is the most important thing, if
your first experience goes bad, for whatever reason, it's gonna be harder to stay in
Europe. If your impact is positive, instead, is gonna be much easier to endure those
difficulties and flourish”.
Q: Another aspect that makes college basketball so attractive is the infrastructure.
Great arenas, great training facilities, everything is on another level compared to
European basketball. In your experience, how much of a factor is in recruiting
players to the school?
Luca Virgilio: “Oh, I think it is among the top three reasons why kids decide to play
here. Most of them, especially if we're the first school they're visiting in the US,
remain speechless when they see our gyms or the arena in which we play, they can't
believe that a school can have facilities like the ones we have. And it's
understandable because in Europe not even pro teams have facilities of that level.
Here at Nebraska, we're very lucky to have one of the best arenas in this part of the
country and, probably, one of the best 10 training facilities in the entire United
States. That's because the university always invests a lot of money in the
infrastructures. For example, if you see our locker room right now, you could say
“wow, this is perfect”, but next year we're gonna rebuild the entire locker room
because we need to keep up with the other schools, that's how it works. So great
infrastructures, getting paid more money than you could get in Europe, and getting a
degree, those elements are essentials. One day your career will be over and having
a good degree from a US college will help you create a new path for yourself. Many
athletes in college, when they're done playing, they want to become coaches at the
college level, right? It makes sense, you can get paid a lot to coach in college
basketball but you can't be a coach without a degree, so you need to study. We have
great facilities, it's true, but we also have a lot of resources. We have a sports
science department, a sports nutrition department, we fly private to all the road
games, it's just a completely different experience from what they're used to in
Europe”.
Q: “Luca, there’s been a lot of criticism surrounding the US development system, especially at the high school level. There’s a feeling that there’s way too much focus on individual skills and not enough on the team aspect of the game. In addition to that, many have criticized the fact that big shoe brands like Adidas or Nike have way too much say in that system. What’s your opinion on this issue and what do you think might change to improve the situation?”
Luca Virgilio: “Well, it’s one of the reasons why colleges are recruiting more and more from Europe nowadays, because a lot of coaches will tell you that European kids, even at a young age, they already know how to play the game because they’re better prepared, because in Europe, during their development, the focus has been on the team game and not only on their individual skills. In the US, there’s a huge problem with marketing – they build these huge marketing machines around players to increase their value on and off the court, and they have a lot of people around them trying to take advantage of this situation. So, they focus a lot on the marketing side but they don’t work enough on their individual game, and that’s, of course, a huge problem when you get to the next level. It happens quite often that prospects who have a lot of hype in high school then fail to maintain a certain level in college, because their game is not developed enough or because they struggle to handle the pressure of those expectations. The problem is the AAU system, it’s a show, nothing more than that. If you go to these events during the summer, you see these big prospects just trying to put up some stats for themselves in order to be recruited by the big schools. You go to these big events arranged by Nike, Puma, or Adidas and they’re terrible to watch, but you find all the great coaches of the big colleges because they know they have to go through this route to recruit some of the best players. I don’t think it’s a situation that’s gonna change anytime soon, but it explains even more why colleges are recruiting so many players coming from Europe.”
Q: “Luca, before we talked about the adjustments that US players have to make when they transition to international basketball, so now I’m curious to ask you, in your opinion, what’s the biggest adjustment that a European prospect needs to make in order to play in the NCAA and what’s the type of mindset that they need to develop?”
Luca Virgilio: “Although it is becoming an increasingly attractive destination, college is not for everybody. It doesn’t really work like that. You need to be mentally tough, it’s not easy. A lot of people in Europe believe that the US is only big cities like New York or Los Angeles, but it’s not like that. This country is so big and even inside the same state, you have completely different realities. So, a young European prospect has to be ready for these changes. You’re gonna be away from your family, from your culture, are you mentally tough to handle that? Are you ready to be challenged every day in training? Because when you get to the school, you’re the outsider, you’re the one who speaks a different language. It doesn’t matter how ready you think you are, you’re not. When I was at St. John’s, I had European kids with a lot of hype coming to New York, they didn’t survive the first two practice sessions, they weren’t ready for that physicality. There were kids coming from junior college, who were playing for their survival really, and they completely killed the European players. For example, if you come to play here in Nebraska, you need to understand what it means. Here in Nebraska, there aren’t professional teams, it’s all about the college world: basketball, football, volleyball, college players are superstars in this state. People in the streets ask you for pictures, but if things are not going well, you’re gonna definitely hear their complaints.”
Q: “The last thing that I wanted to ask you is about the recent trend that we saw in college basketball. In past years, it was all about the one-and-done kids, they were going to college just for one season and then straight to the NBA or to the G League. Now, instead, we’re seeing more and more players staying multiple years in college or sometimes finishing their entire four-year stay in school. In your opinion, staying in college for so long really helps a player in being more prepared for what comes next, either the NBA or overseas basketball?”
Luca Virgilio: “Well, the first element of this trend is the NIL. Players now are staying in college because, often, they can make more money by staying in school rather than leaving early to play in Europe. But even in the NBA, teams now are more willing to draft players who might be a little bit older than in the past. The last NBA draft, if I’m not mistaken, was the one with the oldest average age in recent years. Before, the NBA wasn’t that interested in older players, because it was all about development, and older players have fewer years to develop. But now, especially in some circumstances, I feel like NBA teams are looking for more experienced guys because their game is more polished and they’re ready to give an impact right away. Players staying in school is also good news for college basketball because the level is much higher now, and I believe that, in the end, it’s a great thing also for the players because at the end of their experience in college, they’re gonna be better players and better equipped to face whatever comes next. It doesn’t matter if it’s the NBA or the G League or European basketball.”