Maryland’s Yarden Garzon does not stand out as a novelty, even as the only Israeli athlete representing the Terrapins. She looks like any other college basketball player, stretching before practice, joking with teammates and preparing for the rest of the season.
Garzon may be thousands of miles from her home in Raa’nana, Israel, but the sacrifices of being abroad do not faze her anymore. She knew at age 15 that she wanted to play in the United States, drawn by basketball’s prominence in American sports culture.
“At the end of the day, it’s my dream,” Garzon said.
With her family’s support and their coincidental run-in with an AAU coach in Indiana, that dream became reality.
Garzon played as a starter at Indiana University for three years before entering the transfer portal after the 2024-2025 season. Garzon chose Maryland as her next stop, joining a program accustomed to international talent and part of a growing wave across the country.
The game of basketball has grown exponentially across the world, and Israel has played a key part in that movement, serving as another country where coaches consistently identify talented prospects.
Israeli players are increasingly joining college rosters through Division I, drawn by elite facilities, exposure, education and opportunity.
In the 2025-2026 season, at least 18 Israeli men and roughly 20 Israeli women are playing Division I basketball.
Allie Rubenstein, the Director of Marketing and Media for Athletes for Israel, has noticed the shift firsthand.
“There is incredible talent here. Israel is definitely a contender in terms of athleticism and grit,” Rubenstein said.
In Israel, elite prospects often reach the highest domestic level in their late teens and early twenties, leaving little room to grow beyond it.
Romi Levy, a graduate guard for the Virginia Cavaliers, sought a new challenge outside of Israel, making it easier to take the risk of leaving home.
“If I don’t try and get out of here, I already kinda reached the highest level I can reach in the country,” Levy said.
College basketball in the United States offers a chance to develop and compete – and earn compensation in the process. Levy had the chance to push herself and discover the level of basketball she could bring to an American team.
“I can stay here and be comfortable, or I can get out of here and try to push my limit and see how good I can get,” the Herzliya native added.
All Israelis serve in the Israel Defense Forces after graduating from high school. Upon finishing their service, basketball prospects struggle to secure a sustainable income or find a stable job.
More opportunities emerged for Israeli prospects, without the barrier of compensation for college athletes.
Arriving on campus brought immediate and abundant adjustments. Israeli players learn a fundamentally different way to play the game, only using their instincts from overseas to keep up.
“Most Israeli athletes are not as athletic…so we learn at a young age that we need to rely on basketball IQ,” Levy said.
Ethan Burg, a point guard for the Tennessee Volunteers, calls college basketball a “different sport.”
Burg, 23, arrived in Knoxville with a ton of professional experience in Israel, playing for five different clubs before representing Israel in the 2025 Eurobasket.
Omer Mayer, a 19-year-old Purdue freshman guard, explained that college basketball, compared to Europe, is “more detailed, more scout specific.”
“Each game is different from another,” Mayer said.
They are newcomers to college basketball, but not to pressure.
Tennessee men’s basketball assistant coach Gregg Polinsky helped bring Burg to UT, and he says Burg has “seen a lot,” having already played internationally.
“I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere where a crowd or anything going on is going to affect Ethan,” Polinsky said.
The transition can be quieter and harder away from the court. Mayer struggled with the inner conflict of living across the world from his home.
“I’ve been missing, like, home every single day,” Mayer said, “but I’m in a good place.”
“I’m homesick a lot of times. If it’s food or just family,” Burg said.
Over time, players have found a sense of home through the school’s Hillel center, with weekly Shabbat dinners and teaching their teammates about Israeli and Jewish culture.
“Daniel [Jacobsen], our Center keeps saying to me, ‘shabbat shalom,’” Mayer said.
Romi Levy said her teammates cannot believe she writes from right to left.
For Levy, the leap to college came with uncertainty. 60 schools reached out to her, including FAU when she was 14, creating pressure to find which one would be the perfect fit. Levy, committing in early 2020, entered the process “blindfolded” because of pandemic-era restrictions on visiting campuses. She never made an official visit.
“I didn’t even know what a conference is, or that there are different levels – Power five, division one, division two. I had no idea,” Levy said.
Through a few connections, Levy decided on Auburn and opened her college career with a six-week quarantine. The isolation, coupled with being in a new place and not knowing much English or many people, proved especially challenging. She called her dad “every two hours,” saying she could not do it.
“After I passed this first shock, I started to see how amazing it is – the facilities, the school, the people, and all of these opportunities,” Levy said.
After her freshman year, Levy dealt with a torn ACL, which forced her to miss the 2021-22 season, and the firing of the team’s coach. She found a change of scenery at USF and enjoyed a strong first season. A broken nose and difficult relationships did not sustain that momentum.
Levy’s fortunes righted themselves at her current stop, the University of Virginia. She reached 1000 career points in November and became the third player in Cavaliers history to record a triple-double.
Israeli players arrive in America with experience shaped by professional careers and IDF service. They bring perspective and come out of college basketball with more of it.
“[There have been] a lot of bumps in the road that have shaped who I am as a person and as a player, just to kinda like appreciate myself and my personality, and how resilient I am to go through all of these things that I have been through, and still keep a giant smile on my face every day,” Levy said.
Or Askhanazi, a forward for Lipscomb, saw past the challenges and knew his end goal.
“The fact that you can combine getting a degree here with playing a high basketball level, it’s amazing. You can’t say no to that,” Askhanazi said.
Askhanazi is chasing the highest level possible, but the absence of guarantees keeps him aware of the need for balance.
“You need to think about the future. You need to have a plan B… You might have a career-ending injury, and then what,” Askhanazi added, who is leaning into studying finance and business management.
Former Yeshiva University forward Michael Hayon held a similar mindset to Askhanazi. He maintained that attitude after his career ended, now training NBA players and pursuing a career as an agent.
“I always wanted to play pro, but then I think with the experience I had in college and some injuries and surgeries and stuff like that, it got me to think a lot more about life after basketball,” he said.
Israeli players carry an extra weight on the court. Mayer described an added responsibility of playing in America.
“I do feel like I am representing [Israel] And that’s something I was dreaming of since I was a kid,” Mayer said.
Burg saw his role as more than a spokesperson, but as proof for younger players in Israel.
“I feel like we opened doors for Israelis who want to make that move in the future,” Burg said.
Shay Doron made the move before it was common. After her birth in Israel, Doron’s family moved to Dallas, then the Bronx, Great Neck and back to Israel before returning to New York for high school to play basketball. In 2003, Maryland’s new women’s basketball head coach, Brenda Frese, gave Doron a place to stay, making her the first major recruit of her coaching tenure.
Recruiting from Israel looked nothing like it does now. Limited exposure, slow communication and persistence turned into defining traits of the system. Doron sent VHS tapes to colleges and spent summers playing AAU, trying to find attention.
At the time, Doron didn’t carry the weight of being “the Israeli” in college basketball. She only focused on surviving the jump.
The Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, changed Doron’s perspective.
“I didn’t really understand the significance of Israel until the last few years,” Doron said.
After her career across the WNBA and international leagues, Doron finished her playing career back in Israel, where she often faced Yarden Garzon.
Doron played her final season at 35 years old. Facing a 16-year-old Garzon, she, with a straight face, said, “I tried to hit her as much as possible.”
A small stint on the Israel national team and the Maryland connection evolved the two women’s relationship from competition to guidance.
Doron has remained connected to the program she helped shape, affirming she will be “a Terp for life.”
For Garzon, the weight Doron once avoided is a key part of the experience.
“I didn’t promise her that she wouldn’t feel the anti-semitism and a little bit of anger on what’s going on around campus because…there was some stuff that would make an Israeli feel uncomfortable,” Doron said.
But she did assure Garzon, “You can only go if you take me with you…I’m not letting you have fun without me.”
For Doron, watching Garzon now means seeing a path she had to create on her own.
Doron is the first Israeli to reach the WNBA. Now, she hopes Garzon can follow this year and “[do] it much better than me.”
Basketball’s Fading Borders: Israel is Becoming Part of Today’s Recruiting Map
Israeli players are increasingly joining college rosters through Division I, drawn by elite facilities, exposure, education and opportunity.
