More than 5,000 miles from home and faced with learning a foreign language, the last thing junior Ivan Peljusic needed to see was a stack of books almost as tall as he was.
“I came here to the states, I couldn’t speak at all freshman year,” Peljusic said. “My first quarter, my adviser told me to take Russian Lit. I went to Norris, they gave me five books, 900 pages each. I said, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do with these?'”
Peljusic, a 6-foot-8 forward from Croatia, is one of two players on Northwestern’s roster to hail from the former Yugoslavia, along with Serbian center Luka Mirkovic. It’s a recruiting pipeline the Wildcats have gone to repeatedly: Mirkovic and Peljusic are the fourth and fifth players from the basketball-rich region to play for coach Bill Carmody.
“We got involved in Croatia when I first got here,” Carmody said. “Now, it’s another place you have to look. Just like you have to look at California, you have to look at Europe.”
The Balkans contain some of the best basketball in the world, as Mirkovic was quick to point out Serbia’s silver-medal run at the recent European Championships.
“We live and die for basketball, to be honest,” Mirkovic said.
For the players, it’s a difficult transition. Though Peljusic and Mirkovic both took English classes in their native countries, neither were fluent speakers when they came to the U.S. Peljusic arrived in America as a freshman in college, Mirkovic as a senior in high school.Right off the bat, the pair was expected to be on even footing academically at an elite university with students who had been speaking the language their entire lives.
“In Europe there are no sports associated with the high schools,” Carmody said. “Johnny Quarterback doesn’t get a ‘C’ just because he’s Johnny Quarterback. It’s more rigorous over there. When you get a kid from Europe, they’re prepared.”
Better access to the best incoming talent from the Balkans is one of the reasons Carmody added assistant coach Ivan Vujic to his staff last year.
“They practice five to six hours a day, and they’re good students, not troublemakers,” Vujic said. “It brings a different flavor to your team.”
The European style of play is slightly different from the way the game is played in the U.S., from rules and regulations to training methods. Those around NU believe this makes Carmody’s incoming international players better suited for NU’s Princeton Offense.
“When you see a practice over there, the guys who are 6-foot-8 do the same drills as the guys who are 5-foot-8,” Carmody said. “But over there the big guys do all the dribbling, all the passing, and that kind of lends itself to having more skillful guys.”
Mirkovic, who shoots well from the outside and is third on the team in assists, looked like he would fit into that mold, doing drills meant for the guards in practice.
“In order to be a successful center in the Princeton Offense you have to be skilled,” Mirkovic said. “You have to dribble, pass well. You have to run.”
Despite his 6-foot-11 frame, Mirkovic looked out of place banging on the block earlier in his career. As of late, however, he has been more assertive, including a double-double against Purdue and a strong performance down low against Michigan’s DeShawn Sims Tuesday night.
“You have to flip it and get them used to playing five feet from the basket, with their back to the basket,” Carmody said. “Even in the beginning of this year, he was getting pushed, and he was allowing himself to get pushed. Now he’s fighting back, which is really key for the center of our offense.”
Mirkovic and Peljusic may have been stepping up for NU on the court, but basketball is just part of what they have to worry about.
“It’s hard being away from home,” Vujic said. “But you know your goal, you know the reason why you’re here. Ivan and Luka have a mission to get a college degree and get to be better basketball players.”[email protected]
