The Northwestern men’s basketball team boasts two players from Illinois – and two from Split, Croatia.
Since NU wasn’t able to ink any Americans before last season’s signing deadline, the Cats coaching staff had to cross the Atlantic to find some freshmen for the squad.
Carmody and his staff found three imports: Vedran Vukusic, Davor Duvancic and Thomas Soltau. Vukusic and Duvancic played together on a club team and are from the same town in Croatia. Soltau is from a small town in Denmark.
This year, the trio has had to deal with the usual freshman adjustments, in addition to perfecting their English and playing basketball. But at least they have understanding roommates – Duvancic, Vukusic and Soltau live together in a suite at the Foster-Walker Complex.
“The first month we had a little trouble,” Duvancic said. “We were missing home, missing our friends, families, everything. But the team was good to us. They showed us a little bit of Evanston, a little bit of Chicago.
“Life is pretty exciting here. This is the best thing that ever happened in my life. I never thought I would get the chance to come to America.”
Language hasn’t been a difficulty for the three players. Duvancic studied English for eight years before he arrived in Evanston.
But Soltau isn’t quite as adept at reading.
“It takes forever to read an English page as compared to a Danish page,” Soltau said. “I can use four to six hours to read a 100-page book.”
It might take a while to do their reading, but the foreigners have some free time to spend with the older members of the squad.
“They are so nice to us,” Duvancic said. “I didn’t expect that because we are foreign.”
But one of the biggest changes for the Europeans is the more physical style of play in the United States, and especially in the Big Ten.
Because of the big bodies in the conference, the three have had to bulk up. Each has added more than 15 pounds since they arrived in the fall.
Coach Bill Carmody said Vukusic and Duvancic had never lifted weights before coming to NU.
While all three have gotten bigger, Vukusic is the only one whose larger size has translated into significant minutes on the court. Vukusic averages almost 18 minutes a game and started seven of the Cats’ 20 contests. In addition, he is second in the Big Ten in three-point shooting.
“Everyone is asked to do the same things (in Europe),” Carmody said. “Everyone passes, dribbles, shoots. People in the United States develop certain skills at the expense of other skills.
“For the most part you get more well-rounded players in Europe, but it’s much more physical here.”
Vukusic, Duvancic and Soltau will face a very rough Michigan State team when the Spartans visit Welsh-Ryan tonight.
NU is among the smaller teams in the Big Ten, which hurts the Cats under the basket – they were outrebounded 32-15 by Ohio State on Saturday.
“We have to hold our own on the backboards,” Carmody said. “Rebounding has really been hard for us to overcome in some games.”
The Cats are currently 10th in the conference in rebounding at 31.5 boards per game. The Spartans lead the Big Ten with 39.3 and have the seventh leading rebounder, Aloysius Anagonye.
Anagonye, a 6-foot-8, 255-pound forward, will keep Vukusic and the Cats on their toes under the basket.
Despite the more physical American game, the Croatian import said he enjoys Carmody’s brand of Big Ten basketball.
“I didn’t shoot a lot because I was the biggest guy on the team back home,” Vukusic said. “(But) I like this kind of play. I like to shoot.”
