The All-European Team in College Basketball in 2016-17

The globalization of basketball isn't just an NBA thing, as anyone who closely follows college basketball will tell you. Of the 351 Division I teams in this country, the vast majority have at least one player who was born outside the United States, and several schools have made overseas their main recruiting ground in an effort to fill out their rosters.

Saint Mary's and its 15-2 record is due in great part to a high prevalence of Australians. Seven Gaels, including three of their top five scorers, are from Down Under.

More and more players are coming from Africa, Asia and South America, as well as from north of the border in Canada. However, Europe remains the top breeding ground for such non-American players and quite a few are excelling this season.

To put a spotlight on the best Euros in college we've put together somewhat of an all-continent team with picks for all five positions as well as some sixth-man nods.

Point Guard: Manu Lecomte, Baylor (Belgium)

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Baylor reached No. 1 in the country for the first time in program history earlier this month, winning its first 15 games with three of those victories coming against teams that were ranked in the top 10 at the time. In those games, Manu Lecomte showed his value by averaging 15.3 points and 4.7 assists per game.

A 5'11" junior who began his career at Miami (Florida), Lecomte sat out the 2015-16 season after averaging 7.8 points per game for the Hurricanes in two seasons. This year he's contributing 11.9 points, 4.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game and has made a team-best 32 three-pointers at a 39.5 percent clip, shooting 45.8 percent (11-of-24) from outside in Big 12 play.

Lecomte has been clutch at the foul line, too, shooting 81.7 percent, including 8-of-10 in a four-point win over Oklahoma State on Jan. 7.

Runner-up: Bogdan Bliznyuk, Eastern Washington (Ukraine)

A 6'6" junior who moved to the United States when he was seven, Bliznyuk leads the Eagles in scoring (18.0) and assists (4.2) and is second in rebounds (5.5). He's registered nine games of 20 or more points this season, averaging 24 points, four rebounds and five assists per game in losses at Colorado, Northwestern and Texas.

Shooting Guard: Egor Koulechov, Rice (Russia)

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Egor Koulechov was part of one of Herb Sendek's final recruiting classes at Arizona State, but after playing only 14 minutes per game as a freshman in 2013-14, he looked for someplace where he could have a greater role. New Rice coach Mike Rhoades welcomed him with open arms, and after sitting out a season per NCAA transfer rules, the 6'5" junior has finally settled down following a life of moving around.

Born in Volgograd, Russia, but raised in Israel, Koulechov graduated from high school in Florida before heading to Arizona State.

With the Owls Koulechov is the leading scorer on one of the country's top offensive teams, contributing 19.4 of their 82.8 points per game. That's in addition to 8.4 rebounds per game as well as 52.9 percent shooting from three-point range, which would tie for second-best in the country if he made more than 2.4 threes per game.

Of his five double-doubles, four include at least three made three-pointers, tied for second-most in Division I.

Runner-up: Francis Alonso, UNC-Greensboro (Spain)

A 6'3" sophomore, Alonso is 12th in the country in three-point shooting at 46.4 percent. That's helped him average 14.6 points per game for the Spartans, who are atop the Southern Conference standings after Thursday's 68-66 win over Mercer.

Alonso had 26 points on 7-of-9 shooting in that victory, making four of six threes while going 8-of-9 from the line. He's a 90 percent foul shooter for the season, making 28 of 31 free throws in league play.

Small Forward: Shane Hammink, Valparaiso (Netherlands)

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Senior forward Alec Peters is far and away Valparaiso's best player, but the Crusaders aren't just a one-man team. Fellow senior Shane Hammink is averaging 14.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and is both their top overall shooter (49.7 percent) and their leading assist man at 2.7 per game.

Not bad for a 6'7" wing who began his career at LSU but only scored 74 points in 47 games from 2012-14 before transferring. He averaged 8.9 points per game in 2015-16 with Valpo; this season he has five 20-point games, most recently Jan. 8 against Detroit Mercy when his 23 points included making 14 of 15 foul shots.

Hammink, whose father Geert Hammink was a first-round pick of the Orlando Magic in 1993, has represented the Netherlands in international competition since 2009.

Runner-up: Kris Acox, Furman (Iceland)

A 6'6" senior, Acox averages 12.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game on 58.1 percent shooting. He's been on a tear of late, averaging 18 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 64.2 percent over his last four games.

Power Forward: Lauri Markkanen, Arizona (Finland)

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Half of the players taken in the first round of the NBA draft were born outside the United States, the most ever. DraftExpress is projecting another strong crop of foreign-born players going in the first round for 2017, with Lauri Markkanen topping that list.

The 7'0" freshman is currently pegged as going ninth overall in DraftExpress' most recent projection, a jump from 23rd back in April. He was listed 13th a month before making his collegiate debut with Arizona in which he scored 13 points in a win over Michigan State in Hawaii.

Markkanen was 2-of-3 from three-point range in that game, setting the tone for his 48.9 percent three-point rate for the season. He's the Wildcats' leading scorer (17.0) and rebounder (7.4) and his 45 made threes are more than any two teammates.

Unlike many of the top-tier foreign players who chose college over a direct route to the pros, as is possible when born outside the U.S., Markkanen didn't get his feet way by playing high school ball domestically. Instead he played for Finland's U16, U18 and U20 teams, and at last summer's U20 European Championship, he averaged 24.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.

Runner-up: Vladimir Brodziansky, TCU (Slovakia)

Jamie Dixon's move from Pittsburgh to TCU came as a shock to many, but the veteran coach knew what he was doing. Previous coach Trent Johnson left behind some talented pieces to work with, a list that started with Brodziansky.

After playing one season at Pratt Community College in Kansas, the 6'11" Brodziansky averaged 9.7 points and 4.5 rebounds with the Horned Frogs in 2015-16 before upping that to 13.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game as a junior. He's also blocked 2.4 shots per game, second-best in the Big 12.

Center: Sebastian Saiz, Ole Miss (Spain)

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Ole Miss doesn't look like it's headed to the NCAA tournament, barring a major turnaround in the second half of the season. If it does, though, Sebastian Saiz's playing in the paint will no doubt be a contributing factor.

The 6'9", 240-pound senior is averaging 15.2 points and an SEC-leading 11.6 rebounds per game, 3.5 more than anyone else in the conference. He has logged 12 double-doubles this season, tied for sixth-most in Division I, with the latest coming in Tuesday's win over Tennessee when he had 17 points and 10 boards to surpass the 1,000-point and 800-rebound milestones in the same game.

Saiz came to Ole Miss via Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, the same school that produced former Oklahoma great Buddy Hield and current college standouts such as Arizona's Dusan Ristic and Michigan State's Marvin Clark and Lourawls Nairn Jr.

Runner-up: Dusan Ristic, Arizona (Serbia)

The older of Arizona's two starting 7-footers, Ristic is more of a traditional back-to-the-basket player than freshman Lauri Markkanen. And recently that's meant being near-automatic from close range.

Until scoring only seven points in Thursday's win at USC, the junior was averaging 16.6 points in Pac-12 play while shooting 64.8 percent from the field. For the season Ristic averages 11.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Sixth Man: Luke Nelson, UC Irvine (England)

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UC Irvine won 93 games over the previous four seasons, reaching the NCAA tournament in 2014-15, but this year it started out 5-9 to nearly match its 2015-16 loss total of 10. The Anteaters have since won seven straight, including all five games in the Big West Conference, the last six thanks to Luke Nelson's return.

A 6'3" senior guard, Nelson missed the first 15 games while nursing a hamstring injury. Since his return he's scored 13 points per game and has made 18 of 42 three-pointers. Last season he averaged 13.7 points and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 35.8 percent from three.

"It’s nice to have him back out there," UC Irvine coach Russell Turner said, per Lucas Clark of SanLuisObispo.com.

Prior to coming to the U.S., Nelson was a standout prep player for The Henley College in England, where in 2013 he was named the country's U-18 Player of the Year.

Runner-up: Moritz Wagner, Michigan (Germany)

A bit player off the bench as a freshman, this season Wagner has been Michigan's starter at the four where he's proven to be a difficult matchup because of his outside shooting ability. The 6'10", 240-pound sophomore is shooting 45.1 percent from three-point range, best on the Wolverines, and is third on the team in scoring at 12.1 per game.

Wagner's best game came last weekend when he scored 23 on 6-of-9 shooting with four threes in a win over Nebraska.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout.com, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.