Analyzing Luka Krajnovic and the impact international players will have on Gonzaga, WCC
Croatian Luka Krajnovic brings added size to Gonzaga's backcourt in 2023-24
Transcript
00:00 Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:05 Christian Pettersen joined by Dan Dickow and no conference adjustments to talk about this
00:12 week.
00:13 It almost feels like a quiet week.
00:16 It feels like a rarity that we've actually just gotten to like talk some basketball and
00:20 like look at players and do some real like digging into that kind of stuff with all the
00:25 other chicanery that we've been up to this offseason with conference realignments, commits,
00:31 recommits, decommits.
00:32 So yeah, let's talk about some players this week and in kind of doing show prep and looking
00:37 at hey, who have we talked about?
00:40 Who haven't we talked about?
00:41 It seemed like one reoccurring theme kept popping up and that is some international
00:47 flavor this year to the WCC, both on Gonzaga's roster and looking kind of across the board.
00:54 It seemed like, I mean, I know basketball has really been spanning the globe for 20
00:59 plus years now.
01:00 It's become a very internationally loved sport, but it seemed that for whatever reason, specifically
01:04 the WCC, international heavy or heavier this year, what were some of your thoughts on the
01:10 global state of the WCC?
01:12 Yeah, I mean, I think it's really interesting.
01:16 The WCC and so many teams within the league have done a tremendous job of recruiting internationally
01:21 and internationally can mean in Europe, it can mean in Africa, like Gonzaga had Umar
01:29 Balo from Mali before we transferred to Arizona with Tommy Lloyd, but it can also mean Australia
01:37 and lots of different coaches and staffs and programs have different philosophies on going
01:44 after international players.
01:46 Many times coaches like international players and this is not a necessarily a knock at American
01:56 high school players who can be very talented, but the international players, a lot of times
02:01 coaches have told me they come to college with a little bit more maturity to them.
02:06 Maybe they don't have as many expectations because of the AAU world that many of these
02:13 players have come up playing in for three, four, five years, where if they don't like
02:18 it, they just jump ship and go to another team every couple of weekends.
02:21 So many times coaches have said they like the maturity of these international players.
02:26 They like the ability that these international players many times have the foresight to look
02:33 couple of years down the road in regards to their careers and their future career for
02:39 basketball.
02:40 And so many times this becomes something that they feel like, "Hey, I can recruit this European
02:46 kid and he's going to be on my team for three or four years."
02:51 Whereas opposed to the American high school recruit, they've grown up, as I mentioned,
02:56 in that AAU world where you don't like something one weekend, you're going to play for another
03:01 team the next.
03:02 And that's kind of exploded in the world of the transfer portal.
03:07 And it just is what it is.
03:09 You as a staff, when you're putting together your philosophies and how to implement those,
03:13 you have to see what you're comfortable with, what you like, and how you want to go about
03:18 executing that plan.
03:19 And the European international route has been good, as mentioned, for many WCC teams.
03:25 If you just look at a couple of teams quickly in the league, obviously this is a Gonzaga-based
03:30 podcast that people listen to.
03:32 You don't need me to name off all the great European international players that Gonzaga
03:35 has had over the years.
03:37 We will touch on a recent recruit that just committed, but you look at St. Mary's, they've
03:42 done a tremendous job of getting an Australian pipeline going.
03:47 They've also got some really good Europeans over the years.
03:51 Augustus Marcellinus is actually a current player from Lithuania now.
03:57 They just had a player or two from Estonia.
04:00 You look at San Francisco right now, their roster is going to be pretty interesting next
04:06 year.
04:07 They've got some good Europeans.
04:08 They've also got a player from Mongolia who was a top 100 level high school player coming
04:13 out of high school a couple of years ago.
04:15 He was at Dayton a year ago.
04:17 His nickname is actually Mongolian Mike.
04:20 His dad was a Harlem Globetrotter years ago when he was little.
04:25 So there's lots of different programs in this league that have done some good things.
04:30 You look at LMU with Stan Johnson and Kele Leapepe is back for his fifth year.
04:38 Portland has sprinkled in some European players over the years.
04:43 I think you look at the maturity many times and the ability to look towards a couple of
04:52 years down the road, many times these European players, because of the focus on basketball
04:57 and how it's developed and played at a young age and looked at as you kind of go through
05:03 your career, it has become something that's very appealing to many coaches and programs
05:08 in the WCC.
05:09 I would also be curious, just in that maturity conversation, the kind of person that it takes
05:16 to commit to going to college several thousand miles and a world away from your home.
05:24 Both of us ended up going to colleges within a couple hundred miles of our house, where
05:28 we grew up playing in the same region.
05:32 And even if you want to argue, like going from small town Texas to play in USC or anything
05:39 like big to small like that, maybe that change just doesn't require the same kind of intensity
05:43 as it does to go from living in Perth to living in any city in America and playing for Dayton
05:50 or something.
05:51 So it seems like maybe it is a little bit harder to ask somebody, hey, go to another
05:56 country where you don't know anybody and you're just playing this.
05:59 That can be a huge thing that I had not thought about until you brought up the maturity level
06:03 of it.
06:04 Let's talk specifically a little bit about the Gonzaga roster and the international impacts
06:08 that it's going to have.
06:10 It has had recently and it's going to have this year.
06:12 Yeah, so many people thought when Tommy Lloyd took the job in Arizona that recruiting pipeline
06:18 internationally was going to dry up, and that hasn't been the case.
06:23 You look at a season ago, June from South Korea, he shows up middle of the year.
06:30 That recruitment of him, and I'm sure more of these details will come out and I'll be
06:36 able to share more of the details at some point of the recruitment of him, but he was
06:42 an interesting one.
06:43 Gonzaga had recruited him for quite some time and the timing worked to get him to campus
06:49 and in Spokane, I believe it was right around that January mark, but it just took a while
06:54 for that recruitment to come to fruition, getting him on campus after it got started.
07:00 You look at also the most recent news for Gonzaga is another commit that will be on
07:08 campus here in a month or so when Gonzaga starts back up with the fall semester, and
07:12 that's the Croatian.
07:13 I don't know if I call him a point guard.
07:16 I don't know if I call him a two guard.
07:18 When I watch some highlights and some extended clips and game film, I think he's just a really
07:22 good basketball player.
07:23 That's Luka Krasnovic out of Croatia.
07:26 I think he's got a chance to be a really good player for Gonzaga.
07:31 But again, so many people thought that recruiting pipeline was going to dry up when Tommy left,
07:36 and that hasn't been the case.
07:38 I think what is, do you have any insight as to how coach few does develop that pipeline?
07:45 It seems impossible to have your feelers out in all directions and be like, Hey, we're
07:49 going to send somebody to fly from Mongolia to Australia to Uganda.
07:54 So do you have any clue as to how they're doing that?
07:57 So really the basketball world is all about relationships in your network.
08:04 And with the name Gonzaga, Gonzaga is now an international name in regards to basketball.
08:12 You could talk to an agent over in Europe that handles European basketball players.
08:16 And if you say this player played at Gonzaga, they know, okay, high level, they've been
08:20 coached really well by coach few.
08:23 They played in big games.
08:24 They probably had some success.
08:26 We can rely upon this player.
08:29 So the name Gonzaga brings a lot of credibility in regards to when guys go to play professional.
08:35 But what then that also does is when you've got younger players on the club teams of these
08:42 professional organizations, because the European basketball model is so different than the
08:48 American model.
08:49 The American model is AAU, high school, go to college, try to make the NBA.
08:53 The European model is essentially, you've got your club team in your city or your town,
08:58 depending on how big it is.
09:01 And underneath that club team, that professional club team, you're going to have other levels
09:06 of club teams.
09:08 You might have a U16, a U15 team at different ages for these teams.
09:16 And so it essentially becomes kind of like a feeder program all the way through many
09:20 times.
09:21 Now all the contracts will be signed and maybe many times those contracts get on loan or
09:25 put on loan to different programs where there's transfer similar to a trade.
09:30 But many times really, Gonzaga's name is so credible amongst the professional route that
09:36 now when there's word that a young player, instead of going the European pro route as
09:43 a young player in Europe, wants to go to the States and play college basketball, which
09:48 a lot of them do now because the money for young players in Europe might not be what
09:53 it was years ago.
09:55 It also might be where they've got aspirations to play in the NBA and they think if they
10:00 come to a high level school in the United States, they'll have a better chance of attaining
10:06 that goal.
10:07 But really because of the credibility and the name Gonzaga, many times if there is a
10:14 known kid that wants to go play in Europe, maybe it's their national team coach or maybe
10:20 it's their club team manager gets the word out and relationships that coaches in the
10:28 States here have, talk with different managers of clubs there, coaches over there, even at
10:35 times agents, "Hey, what are the up and coming young players that maybe we need to
10:40 keep an eye out on?"
10:41 And then it's no different than recruiting in the States.
10:44 You try to develop relationships, you try to share your benefits of what your school
10:50 could do for that particular player's career.
10:53 Many times though, getting a player from Europe over to the States to take a visit on campus
10:59 is much different.
11:00 So many times all of that relationship building is done through phone calls, text messages,
11:06 messaging on social media.
11:07 But it's a very interesting process, but it goes back honestly to relationships and networking
11:15 within the world of basketball internationally.
11:19 I mean, Coach Few's name is gold across the world with basketball and Brian Michelson
11:25 has done a tremendous job of networking out.
11:29 Steven Gentry has recruited internationally.
11:32 RJ Barsh, the new assistant coach who came in from Florida State, obviously he's a very
11:37 talented recruiter.
11:38 So it doesn't fall on just one guy, it follows along the lines of multiple coaches within
11:44 the program.
11:45 So what's left on the Gonzaga roster to talk about from our international travels?
11:51 Well, I mean, I think we can touch a little bit more on the most recent recruit, Luka
11:55 Krasnovich.
11:56 You know, big guard, about 6'4".
12:01 He's got, he's right hand dominant, but it's not so much that I would say he can't go left.
12:06 I saw some clips that shows you some promise and some thoughts that, hey, he can shift
12:13 and adjust the defense and make you pay going either direction.
12:16 But the player from Gonzaga that comes to mind when I watched him play on clips is Blake
12:22 Stepp.
12:23 And the reason why he's a big point guard, he pushes it in transition, he's a willing
12:28 passer.
12:29 And then in pick and rolls, he's a tremendous passer.
12:30 And with his size, he can pass over the top and see plays, make plays over the top where
12:35 maybe smaller guards can't.
12:38 And I think he plays with a good pace.
12:40 He didn't seem to get rushed in the game film that I watched, which is always a big thing.
12:48 And he shoots it well.
12:50 You know, I don't think sometimes at this age, you know, your percentage numbers can
12:55 skew somebody's thought process one way or the other.
12:58 But when I looked at his balance, his footwork, his mechanics, all those things, I see someone
13:02 who's got the ability to be a good shooter.
13:06 And Blake Stepp is the guy that came to mind when I watched him on game film.
13:11 Awesome, Dan.
13:12 So it's going to be international coming into the season in terms of the training camp.
13:19 Once everyone gets on campus, yada, yada, yada.
13:21 Do you see international lineups for Gonzaga?
13:23 Are we going to see multiple of these guys on the court?
13:25 What do you think their actual impact this year could potentially be?
13:30 Well, I think they're both going to play.
13:33 Jun, the South Korean wing, I think he's got a chance to play.
13:37 I think he's, you know, he's got good size.
13:39 He's talented.
13:40 He's skilled.
13:41 And then Luca, who we just spoke about from Croatia, he's coming over as an older freshman.
13:47 I believe he's already 19.
13:49 So it's not like he's coming over as having just turned 18 or maybe turning 19 during
13:56 the season, which a lot of freshmen are.
13:59 He's played high level basketball over in Europe for a number of years.
14:04 And so I think-
14:05 These guys have got long term projects that Coach Fu is bringing in.
14:07 These guys are ready to play contributing pieces this year.
14:10 Yeah, I would say they're both going to play minutes.
14:13 You know, whether one or both of them start, that's to be determined.
14:17 I mean, the jump in game from Europe is much different now.
14:23 It is a large jump.
14:25 And many times that's because of the style of play and the physicality and understanding
14:29 terminology and the speed with which the game is played at the college level.
14:33 But he's talented.
14:34 He's got skills.
14:35 I think he's got a chance to play.
14:36 I don't know if, you know, it's hard to peg a minutes per game.
14:42 Oh, no, it wasn't even that specific.
14:44 I do think they will both play minutes and they have a chance to be rotational players.
14:49 Yeah, I wasn't even trying to pin you down that hard.
14:51 It was just more simple.
14:54 You know, are these people worth paying attention to for this season or should we expect them
14:58 in a year or two to be more contributing pieces?
15:00 So I love that they're in.
15:01 We are all in.
15:03 And we got you guys covered with more, hopefully, in-depth analysis that is not talking about
15:09 conference realignment.
15:10 Like we said, we want to put that to bed for the rest of the year.
15:13 And also, like you said, school is coming up really quickly.
15:16 And that means players, the time of us recording this in mid-August, players are like back
15:23 within a, you could call it about a month, right?
15:26 Yeah, they just last week, they just wrapped up summer school in their last practices of
15:32 the summer.
15:33 So most guys have already left to go back to their home home state, home cities, other
15:39 than a couple of guys that are going to stick around for a little bit longer.
15:42 But guys are gone now.
15:44 School starts back up, I believe, right after Labor Day.
15:47 So like September 5th, 6th, 7th, somewhere in there.
15:50 So guys will trickle in a few days before that.
15:52 And yeah, you're right.
15:54 Things are right around the corner.
15:56 It is so nice to be able to actually close out a show with like real enthusiasm.
16:01 Hey, look, Kit, actually almost back.
16:04 No longer are we just sort of ad-libbing throughout the whole summer.
16:08 Make sure that you guys subscribe wherever you get your podcast to Gonzaga Nation.
16:11 Follow us on social media @FanNationZags.
16:13 Follow Dan at DanDickOut21 because we've got tons more coming for you on more episodes
16:18 of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
16:19 We'll talk to you guys next time.