Utah hoops has world of talent

If you plan on attending a college basketball game this year, you might want to bring along a pocket translation guide. For a Ute fan, English-to-Serbian would do nicely. On the other hand, you could just as easily pick up a book on key French phrases. That way, instead of saying, "That's the way the ball bounces," you can spice it up with a "C'est la vie!" or even a "Que sera, sera!"

If you're a BYU fan, studying up on your Brazilian Portuguese dialect would help. Aggie fans would do well to know a little Lithuanian.

At Weber State, Spanish is a good choice.

And if you're a fan of SUU, you may as well join the United Nations. Though you could speak English — the official language of Nigeria — there are 250 other languages spoken there. So take your pick. Or you could call out encouragement in Czech or Brazilian Portuguese. Depends on the player and his chosen language.

One thing is obvious: Basketball isn't a one-language sport any more.

The rise of international players such as Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming and Andrei Kirilenko has changed the way the NBA talks. But colleges are seeing an influx, too. Utah coach Ray Giacoletti has recruited in Australia and most of Europe. This year's team has players from Serbia (2), Australia (2) and France. BYU has players from Serbia, Brazil and Canada.

USU has a Lithuanian, as does Weber, which also has a Uruguayan. SUU has players from Nigeria, the Czech Republic and Brazil. Utah Valley State College has a player from Belize.

"We might have to stop practice a little bit in order to better define things," said SUU coach Bill Evans. "It's not just them understanding us, it's us understanding them as well."

All totaled, 16 foreign players are on Division I-A rosters in Utah. The Utes have Australians Stephen Weigh and Luke Nevill, Serbians Luka Drca and Misha Radojevic and Frenchman Kim Tillie. BYU's roster includes Canadian Jimmy Balderson, Serbian Vuk Ivanovic and Brazilians Fernando Malaman and Jonathan Tavernari. Weber State has Uruguayan Juan Pablo Silveria and Lithuanian Arturas Valeika. USU features Lithuanian Vaitiekus Arvydas, while UVSC's Richard Troyer hails from Belize. SUU has Nurudeen Adepoju (Nigeria), David Marek (Czech Republic) and Junior Abrahao (Brazil).

A regular we-are-the-world gathering.