It’s not always easy being a 6-foot-11 center in the Big Ten.
Just ask Luka Mirkovic.
In Northwestern’s first three conference games against Purdue, Michigan State and Illinois, the junior from Serbia jostled under the boards with some of the conference’s biggest big men, including the Fighting Illini’s 7-foot-1 center Mike Tisdale.
At a position where just fingertips can render a 6-foot frame obsolete, Mirkovic has to fight for every inch on the rebound.
So when he found himself towering a solid two inches above anyone on the court last night, Mirkovic went to town, putting up a career-high 20 points on the evening and snatching 12 rebounds to post his second double-double of the conference season and just his fifth ever for NU.
Coach Bill Carmody said he told Mirkovic before the game that NU needed to get the ball inside.
“We sort of stressed it tonight,” Carmody said, “not necessarily because of their size but because if we’re going to be good at doing anything we have to have an inside presence.”
It’s a lesson NU learned the hard way during its train wreck of a shooting performance at Illinois. It’s no secret the Cats are lethal from the field – prior to the Illinois game, NU ranked second in the Big Ten in shooting. But when the Cats suffered their worst shooting performance of the season against the Illini, shooting a dismal 23.7 percent from behind the arc and a barely better 34.3 percent from the field, it became glaringly clear they needed reinforcement in the paint when the perimeter was not an option.
But Mirkovic struggled against Illinois, posting just two points and four rebounds on the game.
“After such a poor effort against Illinois, most of the guys were obviously upset,” Mirkovic said. “But I feel like our attitude at practice yesterday was unbelievable, and we were really, really confident about this game.”
Mirkovic dominated the paint in the opening minutes of the second half with both size and swagger, scoring back-to-back baskets and grabbing a pair of rebounds. He closed out his performance by drawing a foul on a backdoor layup that sent up a loud cheer in Welsh-Ryan Arena and sinking the free throw.
But it was his presence inside that was just as important as his productivity.
“Just getting the ball down to Luka opens so much up,” junior forward John Shurna said. “I wasn’t really driving too much, but once we threw it down to Luka everything gets moving, shots open up for everybody.”
Shurna would know – he was the beneficiary of the sort of inside-out movement that controlling the paint can generate for a team. Shurna, who posted 24 points on the game, was the only player to out-score Mirkovic. As much as NU primarily coasts on the performances of Shurna and senior point guard Mike Thompson, the team hits another gear when Mirkovic is able to open up options in the paint and swing it back out to the perimeter.
“When coach says we’re going to get the ball down, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to score,” Mirkovic said. “At least I can get the ball and I can pass it back because coach feels like, and we all do, that if we have a good inside-out game, that’s going to help us a lot.”
Although, of course, it never hurts when Mirkovic scores.
