The South Dragons are hoping Victorian players in the NBL will consider returning home as the club continues its search for players for its inaugural season.

In fact the club is so determined to recruit local players, it has gone through the NBL's free-agent list and highlighted all the players who are Victorian.

Players currently on the free-agent list and originate from Victoria include Paul Rees (Adelaide), Michael Hill (Brisbane), Aaron Grabau (Cairns), Kane Oakley (Cairns), Matt Smith (Cairns), Jason Eversteyn (Hunter), Mathew Shanahan (Perth), David Barlow (Sydney), Luke Kendall (Sydney), Mat Campbell (Wollongong).

"Anyone free-agent who is a Victorian-based person, we've put a 'v' next to their name. We're looking to have at least half the squad ideally to have come from Victoria," Dragons co-owner Mark Cowan said.

But it's not single-mindedness that is driving the recruitment policy. Rather it's the club's desire to support the development of basketball in Victoria that is causing it to look for local players.

"Our plan has always been to connect back with grass roots. If we can get people who have played at Dandenong, Knox, Nunawading, Sandringham, etc, I think that will help people identify with them and come along and support the team," he said.

Overall Cowan says the Dragons are hoping to put together a youthful roster and are currently in discussion with a number of Australians playing in US colleges, who will fit in with their intended game-plan, which the club hopes will be similar to the American style.

"We're looking for a team that can get up and down the floor and probably play a little more of a college style game," Cowan said.

"There's a number of really good kids who are coming back from college and if we can secure a couple of those and people who have been through the college system and may have gone over to Europe, they're the kind of people that we'd like to get."

Forwards Dean Brebner and Daniel Kickert, centre Simon Conn and guard Ben Hunt are some of the Australians at US colleges who are all expected to be in the Dragons' sights.

But there is no secret that Adelaide-born Luke Schenscher is the club's marquee target and Cowan says he expects the deal to be completed any day now.

"We're trying to finalise that now. We've put out best offer to him and we're hopeful we'll get an answer within the next couple of days."

Before the club does sign any players, with the exception of Schenscher, it will appoint a head coach and two assistants.

Former Perth Wildcats captain Ricky Grace, current Wollongong assistant Mike Kelly, former Olympian Michelle Timms, Rupert Sapwell and Lori Chizik have all been short listed by the club, while another list of seven non-Australian coaches will be named this week.

Cowan remains tight-lipped about the identities of the international coaches, but he has revealed that two are European based, while two have 'very impressive' playing careers in America, two have college coaching experience and the seventh candidate is a former NBA head coach.

According to Cowan, the NBA coach has spent seven years as an assistant and one season in charge.

"It's pretty exciting to have someone with that level of experience, because you don't get to be an assistant coach if you're a duffa and certainly if you've ended up being a head coach on an NBA program, and it's a fairly substantial one, certainly you know what you're doing," Cowan said.

The club will interview these candidates at the end of next week and it is believed that the head coach will come from the international group.

But Cowan says NBL experience is vital to his club and is likely to come from the two assistant coaches the Dragons will also appoint.

"If it transpires that we get an international coach then it would be very important that the assistant coaches have decent experience within the NBL," he said.

Timms is believed to be one of the leading candidates for an assistant coach spot and Cowan says she would bring great experience to the position.

"We're considering her because she has fantastic experience internationally. She certainly has played at the highest level and her reputation and the way in which she conducts herself are the reasons she's being considered," he said.

Cowan added the assistant coaches will not be selected until a head coach has been appointed.