"I'd watch their eyes," Liu said. "Fast eyes, moving all the time - that means a quick thinker."

He didn't just look for players for his own high school-age team. One time Liu saw a not-so-little 4-year-old boy and made a recruiting pitch.

"I asked his father, 'He play volleyball?' " Liu said, laughing. "He said, 'No, no.' "

Yao Ming's father already knew where his son's future lay, even if he couldn't know that the boy would end up as a multimillionaire for the NBA's Houston Rockets and China's basketball icon.

At the time, Liu couldn't have predicted that his own path would also take him to the United States, to Philadelphia, where he has been the assistant women's volleyball coach at Temple for the last four years, part of an all-over-China-to-North Broad Street pipeline that included four Temple players from China on last year's team.

The Olympic volleyball tournament is of particular interest to Liu. One of his players from the Shanghai Sports School is on the Chinese women's team. A former professional player himself, Liu also did a stint as coach of China's junior national team.

He talked of how for a century the Olympics have taken place elsewhere. "We've been expecting this in China," Liu said.

Liu actually is the second assistant volleyball coach at Temple from China. The first one went home to start a software company, taking advantage of a grant-matching program from the Chinese government. For a successor, the former assistant recommended the man who had taught him the game.

"When we first went over to China - for one international trip every four years - we actually played against the Shanghai Sports School," said Temple head coach Bob Bertucci. "I watched him train his team. The one thing he definitely brings as an assistant, I don't have to explain to him how you train a setter or outside hitter."

Liu also has been a good recruiter for Temple, with connections all over a country that produces top-flight volleyball talent. Bertucci is realistic about knowing he isn't going to get the very best player in the country, just as Temple's men's basketball team was never going to get LeBron James.

"If they're absolute top tier, they're not even going to get a passport," Bertucci said of young players in China. "If they're at that level, their best options are right there."

But Bertucci is very enthusiastic about the level of players he's gotten from China.

"Their sophistication in the sport is usually at a higher level, because they're kind of on that sports track," Bertucci said of Temple's Chinese players. "They've shown some promise in sports, and they've been groomed to excel athletically. Others are groomed to be a musician or an artist. Others who have shown great promise in math, they are groomed in that area.

"If you have shown some promise, or have bloodlines, you'll be pushed that way."

Liu said the Shanghai Sports School was already a step up the sporting ladder, accepting 12- to 18-year-olds from feeder sports schools around the city. The emphasis is totally different from in this country, he said.

"In China, we spent a lot of time on building skills," Liu said. "They learn technique for three years before they can actually compete."

Bertucci believes players are willing to come to this country for college because it's hard to get off the sports-school track if they want to pursue a degree in a different field, to go into business instead of coaching, for instance.

As for getting the Chinese government to allow players to come here for school, "we were almost batting a thousand, until this year," Bertucci said.

"We had somebody from a smaller area in China. They were denied a visa [by the United States]. Shanghai is easier, Beijing a little more difficult. Beijing has so many high-profile people [in various fields that] the [visa] allotment gets used up. A place like Shanghai, it seems like it functions like any other Western city. Capitalism is OK there."

It helps, Bertucci said, that four of the five Temple volleyball graduates from China have gone back. "Two more are in graduate school and working; one for sure intends to go back once she gets her graduate degree."

Bertucci said the Chinese players have a built-in maturity.

"One of the biggest problems at every university, for example, is drinking for undergraduates," Bertucci said. "Drinking is just not a big deal; they could have done it at any time. That's not a big part of their lifestyle. They seem to be more balanced. They want to go out and see a movie or go dancing occasionally, but it doesn't consume their life. They're here to serve a purpose, not looking to get away from Mom and Dad and go crazy."

In 14 seasons at Temple, Bertucci has won six Atlantic Ten titles, and the Owls have won the East Division of the A-10 the last four years. His own extensive international credentials include coaching the U.S. women's team at the 1999 World University Games.

"The international connection has helped our program, really attracting higher-talented individuals," Bertucci said, noting that Temple has a program in Beijing. "It would be difficult to attract that same level of talent in the United States. There's just more competition for those players. This was an avenue that fit for our university and our city. We have such a melting pot."

Zhang Yun Yi will be a junior at Temple. While at the Shanghai Sports School, she was a member of the Chinese Youth National Team that captured a World Youth title.

"In China, a lot of players go to sports schools," the 6-foot-4 Zhang said in an e-mail from a volleyball camp in Georgia where she was working. "So we focus a lot on whichever sport we practice. The coaches are very intense in China; they don't give us many breaks. We have to obey the coach or else we will get in trouble. We only focus on one skill at a time so we can master that skill."

Her father was a volleyball professional who now coaches a college team and is helping with the Olympic team.

"I wish I could be there, but I will be in preseason," Zhang said.

Asked to compare Shanghai and Philadelphia, Zhang said: "There are a lot more people in Shanghai. Philadelphia is more dangerous than Shanghai. The stores are always open late at night in Shanghai, so people stay out later and it is much safer."

As far as volleyball, there are differences, too.

"We learn to pass differently in China," Zhang said. "We don't do shuffle steps or anything like in America. We cross over our feet because it's faster."

Liu, the assistant coach, said he believes the Shanghai Sports School has a higher level of volleyball talent than Temple.

But his candor cut both ways. "They have very good schools in Shanghai, just like Ivy schools," he said. "But the education is better here in the United States. The education in China focuses on books and themes. Here, they focus on working abilities."

In an interview at Temple, Liu had his daughter, Yan, translate, since his English is still limited. Yan, who graduated from Temple in 2006 after playing volleyball for three seasons, did most of the talking, but when Liu was explaining the different passing technique - how Chinese coaches teach passing with the fingers closed - his points were easily understood, especially since he also demonstrated with his own hands.

Most of Temple's players call their assistant coach by his first name of Qing (pronounced Ching), so regarding his coaching vocabulary, "we call it Qing-lish," Bertucci said. "In between Chinese and English."

As much as the Chinese connection has helped him, Bertucci feels that advantage is diminishing as the world grows smaller.

"I used to have a real edge there," Bertucci said. "You even have recruiting services that are basically scouting and giving out names on the international athletes, including in China."