If you come from the fruitful Bob Huggins coaching tree, as did successful Illinois veteran Brad Underwood, you know precisely what it means when the words “get opposite” begin echoing through a gymnasium.
If you began your basketball career in the European club system, and English is not necessarily your preferred language, this phrase may be as vexing as any item of grammar-challenged slang repeated in the locker room.
Huggins, for whom Underwood got his high-major coaching start as an assistant at Kansas State, long ago figured out the majority of rebounds traveled away from where the shot was launched. So getting “opposite” to where the ball was most likely to bounce offered the best chance of retrieving it.
This was not something explained in those terms to big man David Mirkovic when he was playing last season for SC Derby in Montenegro, or to point guard Mihailo Petrovic at Mega Superbet in Serbia.
“One of the big things we stress at Illinois is offensive rebounding. It’s a way to improve efficiency really easily,” Fighting Illini power forward Ben Humrichous told AllSportsPeople. “Coach Underwood’s philosophy is to get opposite of where the shot is. He screams ‘opposite, opposite, opposite.’
"There was one day it wasn’t clicking, and we go to the locker room and I ask Mihailo and David, ‘Have you ever heard of the word ‘opposite?’ David goes, ‘I’ve never heard of that word.’ And so we’re screaming ‘opposite’, and he goes, ‘I have no idea what he he was telling me, but everybody went to the other side, so I just followed them.’”
Assimilating international players into the NCAA basketball universe is not something happening only at Illinois, but Underwood’s emphasis on recruiting these prospects – he has five prominent players with European backgrounds – did lead to him being assigned the nickname “Bradimir” and to his posting a photo on his Instagram account depicting him in a stereotypical Balkan look that might have been drawn from a Law & Order episode: a monochrome warmup suit with a newsboy cap on top. He’s now selling T-shirts depicting that photo and promising – threatening? -- to break it out for a future game.
Fifteen years ago, Enes Kanter of Turkiye was ruled ineligible to compete for the Kentucky Wildcats because he’d accepted living expenses deemed to be worth $33,000 while he was in the Fenerbache system, one of the top clubs in that country
Now, Illinois has four players who spent a significant part of their development in the European club system, including twins Tomislav and Zvonimir “Big Z” Ivisic, who also played for SC Derby. One can add to that gifted Cal transfer Andrej Stojakovic, son of NBA star Peja Stojakovic, who was born in Greece but grew up in California playing AAU and high school ball.
The Illini have started 4-0 with this group, although Petrovic has not yet appeared because of a hamstring injury. That record includes a home victory over expected Big 12 contender Texas Tech, and Wednesday night they’ll get another significant test with a (somewhat) neutral-court game against Alabama at Chicago’s United Center.
In all, the Big Ten has 26 players who previously played for clubs in Europe, including Purdue freshman Omer Mayer, whose Israeli team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, participates in European competitions. There are players from Norway, Slovenia, Spain and others.
The obstacles to attracting such players are not what they were when Kanter was trying to play college hoops, and the benefits even go beyond the NIL and revenue share payments available. NBA prospects easily can be seen on myriad occasions by the leagues scouts, and they’re seen while playing more frequently than in the brief runs available to many young Euro players. And colleges have no hold on players when it’s time to turn professional; they simply run out of NCAA eligibility or declare for the draft. Though less so than in the past, it can be challenging or costly for a prospect to extricate himself from a club agreement.
“I think there’s a variety of reasons,” Underwood said at the Big Ten Media Day, explaining his program’s tilt toward Eastern Europe. “One, it fits our university. We have a very diverse university at the University of Illinois. We’ve always looked at it as a way that fit me, fit what I like. The big three, I call them: dribble-pass-shoot guys. I love the fact they have tremendous passion for the game. They’ve been extremely well-coached since their young days. They’re fundamentally very sound.
“Now, NIL has opened it up so we can get the really, really good ones. We’ve had guys before, but maybe not the top quality.”
When asked directly about the focus on European recruits, Underwood expanded on his point.
“Why not? I mean, really, why not?” Underwood said. “They fit us. They’re good players. We had holes we needed to fill. The two portal spots, we wanted to get older. Zvonimir, obviously, 7-2 shotblocker, one of the tops in the SEC. Then with Andre, he’s a proven 18-point a game scorer, does it different ways. And then the guys from Europe: David Mirkovic, 6-9, 260 … adds some versatility, is very skilled. Mihailo, a point guard, fits in that pick-and-roll scheme that we ran.
“And so they’re all very different, and those were options. They all compete. They all have great character. They just fit exactly what we were looking for. So I didn’t care where they were from, but we were deep into Europe, and we had connections. And those were guys that we feel great about.”
If there is to be a European revolution in American college basketball, they’re only just now starting to build the barricades.
In the past decade, only two guys imported from the Euro club system were named consensus All-American – Utah center Jakob Poeltl in 2016, Arizona power forward Azuolas Tubelis in 2023 – out of a total of 103 players. There have been multiple international players who earned this honor, but some were Canadians who spent time in U.S. High schools and summer basketball circuit (RJ Barrett of Duke, Zach Edey of Purdue). Others came from Australia (Jock Landale of Saint Mary’s) or Japan (Rui Hachimura).
Those European prospects who aspired to play professionally largely considered NCAA basketball to be an interruption to their progress. Those who were obvious NBA targets could remain close to home and make significant money, such as Alperen Sengun in Turkey and Victor Wembanyama in France, before filing for the draft when they met the age requirements. And those who were marginal prospects could avoid angering a potential future employer, which would be a possible result if they left their clubs to play in the ACC or Big 12.
With financial compensation now available to those players, plus educational opportunities, plus the opportunity to perform on the stage that produces by far the largest number of NBA Draft picks – 79 percent of first-rounders in the past three drafts played at U.S. Colleges – the move to NCAA basketball is vastly more enticing.
What those players might bring to their college teams will vary by player, but one common element is experience competing against older players. And, in a few cases, being one of those older players. Although in just his first NCAA season, Petrovic will turn 23 on the eve of March Madness.
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The Illini made the NCAA Tournament and advanced a round last season, with first-year players Kasparas Jakucionis, Tomislav Ivisic and Will Riley ranking as the team’s top three scorers. Duke reiterated during the same season it’s possible to win big with freshmen, but they better be dudes like Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel.
“You go back two years ago, our Elite Eight team, we were an old team,” Underwood told TSN. “There’s a huge advantage to being in a weight room two or three years. There’s a huge advantage to having 30-60-90 games under your belt, and to know what comes with that, know what comes with the rigors of a season. I like that.
“In Mihailo’s case, he’s a little older. He’s played against great players. David, even though he’s younger, he’s played against great players, at a high level, and had success. And some of the experiences they haven’t seen in the states, now we have a group that’s experienced it and can handle that. We played Kentucky in the tournament, and I think their point guard had more tournament experience than our whole team. That’s not the case now. There’s value in having some age – and some bumps along the way.”
He is new to Illinois and the Big Ten, but Stojakovic can be the connective force on this team. He was born in Greece and grew up with a father who represents the ideal of the European system – three-time NBA All-Star, NBA champion, nearly 14,000 career points – but Andrej played summer ball here with the Compton Magic and attended Jesuit High School in Carmichael, Calif.
“The guys on the team that aren’t used to college basketball are starting to enjoy it,” Andrej told AllSportsPeople. “I think it helps our team a lot, although I went to high school in the States, growing up in that environment for a portion of my life, I’m used to it, and I feel like I can be that connector for the guys that were raised in America to understand them and where they’re coming from and mesh it all together.
“We have a lot of smart players on the team, and we’re a great shooting team. I think we can use that to our advantage.
“Usually, when you stack up against the other teams, you can kind of tell who you match up well with, who you can compete with. I’ve said this before, but I honestly don’t want to put a ceiling on our team. Because Illinois’ standard is to go into March Madness and make a run, but we have something more than that. And the only people that really believe it and see it every day are the guys in the gym.”
There is a common assertion that players who develop in the Euro club system are more fundamentally sound. Stojakovic mentioned this, despite spending so much of his developmental time in the U.S.
“Playing high school in the States has its positives and negatives,” Stojakovic told TSN. “I think the fundamental side is overlooked in America, and it’s something they harp on overseas. I think spending summers overseas and practicing with pro clubs has allowed me to understand the game better.
“For the Americans on the team, actually getting to play with overseas guys, it’s great for them to understand how the other side is being played. I think both sides are learning off each other.”
There undoubtedly are variances in the way the game is taught in Europe, especially for big men. That’s why Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Wembanyama excel in so many different ways, whereas the majority of American bigs tend to perform nearer to the goal.
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It’s hard to ascertain, though, which fundamentals the Euro club system is teaching better in general. Shooting would figure to be one, and yet only 12 percent of the 50 most accurate 3-point shooters in the NBA last season were products of the Euro system, and only 6 percent of those who made the most threes.
Passing? Only 6 percent of the top 50 in assists were from Euro clubs, plus Josh Giddey from Australia’s NBL.
It may be more accurate to say the game in Europe is different.
“You can watch all these teams, it’s what they do now, going for international guys,” veteran Illini guard Kylan Boswell said. “I think we’re just looking for talent. And it happened to be a bunch of international guys that were really good and fit the system.
“Just embrace them with open arms, and at the same time being accepting of the learning. There’s a lot of curves they’re going to go through throughout the year, but they’re mature enough and ready for anything that will come with that.”
Coming to Illinois from Arizona, where he played for international recruiting pioneer Tommy Lloyd, Boswell has not had to adjust to having teammates who grew up in a different system, a different culture. It’s what he’s done throughout four college seasons. He has appreciated learning more about the various countries where his teammates lived.
“Seeing them, learning more about the history, especially the neighboring countries that do not like one another at all. So I’ve seen see them get along,” Boswell said. “So with that, it’s kind of funny now. We talk about it, goof around.”
In addition to the occasional language barrier within the Illini rotation, though, there is one of musical tastes. “They love their music,” Humrichous said, implying it might not be precisely what you’d hear on an American teenager’s playlist.
“It’s not not anything I could really explain too well. I guess I could say it’s kind of like club music. Mihailo has this little dance – this song gets played every day, and he has this little dance he does to it. It’s fun for us, because it’s just something that’s common that brings us all together. We’ll play in the weight room, and it brings us together and builds that bond.”
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