SAN DIEGO — The University of Arizona men’s basketball team leads the nation in assists per game (19.9), assist rate (65.4 percent), total rebounds (1,406) and, quite possibly, in languages spoken.

Bennedict Mathurin, the Pac-12 Conference player of the year and star of the Wildcats’ overtime thriller over Texas Christian on Sunday in the second round of the N.C.A.A. tournament, is from Montreal and speaks French, English, Spanish and Creole.

Christian Koloko, the Pac-12 defensive player of the year, who had 28 points and 12 rebounds against the Horned Frogs, is from Cameroon and speaks French and English.

Point guard Kerr Kriisa, who is from Estonia, speaks Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian and English. Oumar Ballo, a redshirt sophomore center from Mali, speaks Bambara, French, Spanish and English.

That’s only the beginning. The Wildcats, set to face fifth-seeded Houston in a South Regional game on Thursday night in San Antonio, earned a No. 1 seeding and have constructed a 33-3 record in large part because of the heavy lifting of eight international players from seven countries.

The group comes together in the universal language of basketball. But in off-the-court moments together, things can get interesting.

“I only know English,” said guard Dalen Terry, a Phoenix native. “So Oumar be talking in French and I’ll be, like, I don’t even know what they say. I know a few words, obviously the bad ones. But it’s funny. So even, like, Zu doesn’t speak that much — what’s your language?”

Fielding that question while sitting next to Terry, Azuolas Tubelis, who is from Lithuania, informed his teammate that it is Lithuanian (he also speaks Russian and English). Tubelis’s brother, Tautvilas, is also on the team. He speaks the same three languages.

“It’s just funny when they talk in that language because I can’t talk in a different language for them not to understand me,” Terry said, smiling and adding that “it is a blessing to be a part of a team like this.”

Despite their cultural differences, the Wildcats have been a cohesive unit. But for Tommy Lloyd, the team’s first-year coach, it has been business as usual. Lloyd, who replaced Sean Miller after last season, had been an assistant to Gonzaga Coach Mark Few for the previous 20 years and specialized in international recruiting.

When he hired Lloyd in 2001, Few recommended that his new assistant find a recruiting niche at which he could excel. A native of Kelso, Wash., Lloyd had grown up in a family that regularly hosted foreign exchange students. After college, he played professionally in Brisbane, Australia, and Düsseldorf, Germany. He and his wife, Chanelle, traveled extensively. He gravitated toward his niche naturally.

“I love international players,” Lloyd said. “And it will probably, hopefully, always be a foundational piece of any program I’m involved with. I think they have a certain basketball I.Q. and unselfishness that they naturally play with. And when you put a group of them together and you mix in some American kids, it becomes easy.

“And one of the things about European kids coming over at a young age, they’re much more adept to being a role player and doing those role-player-type things, because if you’re 16, 17, 18, 19 in Europe, you’re playing with men, usually. And then those men don’t let you just dribble the ball around and jack crazy shots.”

Lloyd, 46, was chiefly responsible for bringing in about two dozen international players to help fuel Gonzaga’s powerful teams over the years. Among those who became N.B.A. draft picks were the two-time N.B.A. All-Star Domantas Sabonis (a son of Basketball Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis), Rui Hachimura, Ronny Turiaf, Mario Kasun and Kelly Olynyk. Others for whom Lloyd was responsible for signing and developing at Gonzaga include J.P. Batista, Elias Harris, Kevin Pangos and Przemek Karnowski.

While Lloyd was there, Gonzaga brought in players from every continent except Antarctica.

He has never counted exactly how many countries he has visited, but he estimates it is at least 50. His favorite international trip was to Crete for the 2019 World Schools Championship. He was able to take his family, including his son, Liam, who played for Grand Canyon University this season, and daughters, Sofia and Maria.

His most arduous travel, though, came during a trip to Paris when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted in 2010.

“I was stuck over there for a week,” he said. “Had a bunch of flights canceled, crowded trains, rental cars, and we survived. Got a couple of players on that trip.”

Though Lloyd deflected several job feelers over the years, he said the Arizona fit was a natural — particularly because the Wildcats’ roster was already stocked with internationals. He inherited six holdovers who had been recruited by Miller: Mathurin, Koloko, Kriisa, Pelle Larsson from Sweden (who speaks Swedish and English) and the Tubelis brothers. Ballo followed Lloyd to Arizona from Gonzaga, and the coach also imported Adama Bal from France. He speaks French, English and Wolof.

Lloyd was familiar with the Arizona holdovers and credited that with helping him retain them.

“That’s the one thing people don’t talk about in college basketball today,” Lloyd said. “Especially last year was the first year that you get a job, everybody’s a free agent. Everybody can transfer and play right away. There’s no waiver needed. You had to really go in and re-recruit.”

There was no full-court press needed to retain Mathurin, who was familiar with Lloyd’s work.

“I watched a lot of games when he was at Gonzaga, and just the players he brought through his program and the style of play he’s playing,” Mathurin said. “I feel it was a great fit to me as well and to the international players on my team.”

Azuolas Tubelis said: “It was easy for me because he is easy to understand and he understands me. So we are just on the same page every time.”

Lloyd’s passion for a world beyond the basketball court has been instrumental in educating not only his family, but, through them, so many of the international players who arrive with a desire to succeed.

“The biggest thing is just letting them know that you’re going to be able to help guide them through this process,” Lloyd said. “You know how difficult it’s going to be. You know where the pitfalls are. And you’re going to be able to support them when they hit some adversity, because they’re going to hit adversity away from home.”

Now, the Wildcats are in a position to seize the university’s first men’s basketball championship since Lute Olson guided the Wildcats past Kentucky in the 1997 final. And they’re all in, even if, by virtue of growing up overseas, some of them are just learning about the N.C.A.A. tournament.

“When I was young, I saw a couple of posts when Sabonis played at Gonzaga and they lost in the first round somewhere,” Azuolas Tubelis said. “And that’s how I knew about it. But I didn’t follow it.”

No matter. Between the roaring fans and the lurking danger of elimination, they’re learning fast. And just in case they miss something, their coach is ready to help.

“The two greatest weeks in college basketball are when you win your round-of-32 game leading up to the Sweet 16, and then the best one is you win your Elite 8 game and you prepare for a Final Four,” Lloyd said, adding: “We’ve got a daunting, daunting task ahead of us. The grit and toughness of the teams on our side of the bracket, it’s pretty formidable.”