MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -Traveling across South America, John Chaney heard plenty of claims. Most turned out to be untrue, the player not quite as tall, fast or talented as advertised.

"They'd say almost anything to get a chance to come to the United States,'' the former Temple coach recalls.

One did live up to the billing: Pepe Sanchez, a dynamic point guard from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, who followed Chaney to Philadelphia, became an All-American and took the Owls within a game of the 1999 Final Four.

Little did this unlikely pairing know that they would help open college basketball's door to Latin America - a door that soon could be kicked wide open.

READ MORE: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/wires/12/08/2060.ap.bkc.latin.influence.0883/

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