Valpo Remains Vibrant Cinderella Story Because of Extensive Foreign Aid

The Indiana-based university supplying the nation's premier Cinderella story the past 20 years has been at Valparaiso; not Butler. The institution with a Duke-like SAT average among its students has a reputation as the Midwest's version of an Ivy League school. However, many observers thought it wasn't an intelligent decision for the school to move up to NCAA Division I, especially when the Crusaders compiled losing records each of their first 16 years at the major-college level.

But losing marks are no longer the case. Valpo has maintained one of the most amazing turnarounds over the last couple of decades because blood is thicker than water (Drew family) and the benefits of foreign aid.

The top two scorers and rebounders for this season's Horizon League regular-season champion Valparaiso - Ryan Broekhoff and Kevin Van Wijk - are not North America natives. No school has benefitted more from an influx of foreigners over the years than the Crusaders.

Valpo's spanning-the-globe foreign invasion has included: Lubos Barton (Czech Republic), Ali Berdiel (Puerto Rico), Broekhoff (Australia), Richie Edwards (New Zealand), Antonio Falu (Puerto Rico), Vashil Fernandez (Jamaica), Benjamin Fumey (Germany), Joaquim Gomes (Angola), Raitis Grafs (Latvia), Samuel Haanpaa (Finland), Shawn Huff (Finland), Mohamed Kone (France), Calum MacLeod (New Zealand), Moussa Mbaye (Senegal), Roberto Nieves (Puerto Rico), Stalin Ortiz (Colombia), Marko Punda (Croatia), Michael Rogers (Jamaica), Oumar Sylla (Mali), Van Wijk (Netherlands), Antanas Vilcinskas (Lithuania), Zoran Viskovic (Croatia), Hrvoje Vucic (Croatia), Ivan Vujic (Croatia) and Cameron Witt (Australia).

Barton, Berdiel, Gomes, Grafs, Ortiz and Viskovic were all-conference selections in the Mid-Continent Conference before the school switched to the Horizon League. Other schools that have fortified their rosters with more than a dozen quality foreigners over the years as the new world order unfolds include American University, Davidson, Florida International, George Washington, Hawaii and Saint Mary's.

Broekhoff could join the following alphabetical list of foreigners named Player of the Year/Most Valuable Player in a Division I conference in back-to-back seasons: