Pond-hopping has long been a vital ingredient of the hoops game and, though the sale of transatlantic air tickets dried up in the early part of this decade, due to the exclusion of foreign players from the Scottish League, business looks like being brisk again shortly due to the imminent return of pro ball.

One who might soon book his season ticket is Nick Nurse, the American coach who guided the Birmingham Bullets the season before last. Nurse is being tipped to return to take up the post of coach to the new, still-to-be-named, Edinburgh side following a visit to the capital to see the franchise owners.

Ian Reid, a spokesman for the Scottish Concept Group who put together the franchise bid, refused to confirm Nurse's appointment this week and insists there are still at least six candidates in the frame after enquiries from the world over.

Reid's reluctance may be due to the fact that the success of the bid has not yet been officially announced. But there is genuine optimism that the administrative and legal hurdles to a Scottish club returning to the fray have now been cleared and, according to Reid, an announcement is expected in the next two weeks.

Two other American names have featured in the speculation about a coach: Jimmy Brandon, who has just parted company with Manchester Giants, and Kevin Cadle, coach to the once all-conquering London Towers, who seems to have reached the end of the road with the slumping Metropolis combine.

The transatlantic traffic is not all one-way. In the land of opportunity one young Scot looks to be on the way up both physically and metaphorically.

Robert Archibald, Scotland's 1997 Junior Player of the Year, who has been at Lafayeete High School for the last year and has grown to an astonishing 6ft 11in, has just been signed on a basketball scholarship by the University of Illinois, who play in the Big Ten Conference.

Archibald, whose father Bobby was a Great Britain centre despite being ''only'' 6ft 6in tall, left Scotland a 6ft 9in guard-forward but might come into the frame as a centre once he is put on a college programme especially as there is currently a shortage of big centres coming through in the USA.

Scotland's other major export to the US hoops scene, Nicky Emblem failed in her first bid to enter the Women's NBA after attending trials for the Houston Comets. Over 100 players were seen and just two made it, but Emblem will try-out soon for the Los Angeles Sparks.

If she does not make it, there is still the rival American Women's League, but if she fails to secure a professional contract there is a danger she may be lost to basketball altogether as there are few other opportunities for seniors in the US. Worse still she could be lost to Scotland for whom she would still be a stand-out.

The cost of bringing Scots exiles back from the other side of the Pond has been a major factor in Scotland's relative lack of success in recent four-country international tournaments. With Archibald in the junior side at Aberdeen (where both England and Ireland had US-based stars) and Emblem, Claire Mollison and Tracy Phillips in the women's team in Dublin, there is no saying what might have been achieved.

But it needs money and a system and neither are in place at present.